Charles Leclerc tried to take a philosophical view after losing out on a third straight victory to teammate Sebastian Vettel in Singapore.
The Monegasque had controlled the race well from the start, dictating a slow pace to look after the tyres and make the undercut difficult for the cars behind.
When a gap emerged though, it was his teammate who pitted first making up over four seconds on his out-lap alone to jump from third to first.
“I was surprised because I was not aware in the car, but I guess if this decision has been made, it was for good for the team and it had to be the only way for us to do a one-two,” Leclerc told Crash.net.
“If this is the case then I completely understand but obviously from inside the car it is a bit frustrating.
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“I don’t think I could have done things much better or differently. The only thing I will probably do is ask a bit more about strategy around me, who is pitting and who is not because I was not aware.
“So I don’t know if I should have pushed more in the first stint. We have plenty of data and we will analyse it.”
Leclerc’s frustration was clear after losing the lead as he demanded more power from his team at Safety Car restarts and described his loss of the lead as “unfair”.
“I was quite often on the radio, but as soon as Safety Car went away then I focused on my job and tried to do the best of my race.
“As soon as I thought more about the situation after, you see things a bit differently, even though I still need some explanations to understand fully why this decision was taken.
“It’s always frustrating in the car because you only see your situation and you don’t see everything else.”
Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto later confirmed that Vettel’s dramatic undercut certainly wasn’t intentional and thought had been given to allowing Leclerc back through.
“The undercut was effectively more powerful than expected, it was 3.9 seconds. We were not expecting such a big number,” he said.
“Did we consider the swap? Yes, we did.
“I think we thought at that stage at least it was the right choice not to do it, and obviously now, we are still discussing with the drivers if that was the right choice or not, which internally we still have different opinions to discuss.
“But yes, we thought about it.”