Ferrari says the challenge of fighting in Formula 1’s midfield pack is making strategy calls “more complicated” in 2020.
The past two races have seen increased scrutiny on the Italian team’s decision-making during a race with radio complaints from Sebastian Vettel painting a picture of disorganisation and confusion on the pitwall.
In the second race at Silverstone, the German said the strategists had “messed up” after an early stop had put him in traffic, then on Sunday in Barcelona, there was another disgruntled conversation as Ferrari asked Vettel about switching to a one-stop strategy.
“Oh for f**k sake, I asked you this before. Now I’ve been pushing for three laps,” was Seb’s initial response.
Ultimately though, they would proceed with the change in plan and it paid off, earning him a seventh-place finish.
“It’s quite simple, we didn’t have anything to lose,” Vettel said of the decision to stay out.
“We were P11 and I think we were trying to offset until the end of the race, so obviously we were catching the cars in front.
“They pitted for their second stop, but I was not in a rush to catch them and [was] managing the tyres.
“Then I was told to push, which I did, and I was told to make it to the end, or asked if I could make it to the end.
“I said: ‘Well, you could have asked that three laps before because I asked a couple of times, what’s the target, how long do we want to go, so I could look after my tyres’.
“I said we’d try to make it. The last five laps were really, really difficult.
“Obviously it helped that we got lapped to be honest – not always the case, but today it was.
“We obviously took that risk because we had nothing to lose and it did pay off, but it wasn’t the plan before the race to do close to 40 laps on the softer tyre.”
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Ferrari’s head of race strategy, Inaka Rueda, then put the call into more context, explaining how the initial plan with Vettel looked unlikely to yield a positive result.
“The car handled better on the softs and Seb was able to push more,” he was quoted by Motorsport Week.
“The aim was to get to lap 50, but despite a series of quick laps, we were unable to open the gap to [Daniel] Ricciardo.
“At this point, we could stick with two stops and risk finishing behind the Renault or try to go all the way to the flag. We just had to talk to the driver and see if he thought it was on.
“At first, logically enough he was surprised and asked what pace was required to finish in a good position.
“Having evaluated the pros and cons, Seb gave it a go and, thanks to his talent, he managed to do something that had seemed impossible.”
In the recent past, Ferrari has often been criticised for their poor strategy choices, leading to the attention that gets placed upon it today.
Rueda though admits the Scuderia is having to think more on its feet because of the fluid battles around them.
“Compared to the past, race management is much more complicated,” he said.
“It’s a fact that this year we are fighting with a group of teams and drivers whose performance is all very close and so it’s easy to find yourself having to manage scenarios that change lap after lap.
“Up to last year, the fight was only with a few teams and behind the top three there was an abyss, therefore there was hardly ever a problem with traffic.
“You just had to open a gap before the first stop and then everything followed on more or less to an equal model with few variables.
“That’s not the case today and so the talk with the drivers is more frequent and intense and it’s normal that you talk and change your mind, depending on what’s happening on track.”
