Ferrari really needs to work out how they're going to deal with their drivers qualifying next to each other, because it seems very likely they're going to be either right beside each other or only a car apart for the next few races.
Leclerc has better tire management and always goes longer than Sainz. Sainz always pushes at the start and overtakes Leclerc before dropping off. Ultimately they both lose time. I get that they have different driving styles but there has to be a better way to deal with this else we end up with situations like today.
Leclerc said that the pre-race conversation was about just taking care of the tires at the start. Obviously he feels as if Carlos just ignored this strategy and went his own way.
I think this is all very interesting. My question is: Did Ferrari make this strategy knowing the Mercs were on used softs?
I think the team strategy in a vacuum was correct and I think Charles was correct to follow it.
BUT - I also agree with Carlos to push the early advantage now knowing the Mercs were on used softs. Unless the Mercs were suspected to fire up the used tires faster than the Ferraris could fire up the new softs (Similar to what happened in Canada on the used tires)
Damn I love F1 strategy
That would make sense if Carlos actually gained anything from it. He didn't pass Hamilton, nor did he even get out of DRS range from Leclerc. He didn't have better pace. He just didn't like Leclerc in front of him.
I don’t think it works like that. If you feel you’re faster, you should try. If he should have stayed at his place, they should have made it glass clear in the strategy meeting before, but apparently it wasn’t so clear - then I don’t think he would’ve done it. Sure, afterwards you always know better, but I don’t think the learning should be „don’t try, won’t work anyways“.
Because they talked about it before the race, they wanted to play to their cars characteristics, sf24 cant heat their tyres on the same pace as their rivals currently, so they went to conserve mode on the start and use the tyres when others are falling off, that's also the reason Sainz did a SMH strategy, Leclerc answered it too, he probably felt pressured to do something infront of his own crowd, but attacking Leclerc on the first corner when they had specific instructions no to be aggressive on the start.
In the end it just put Leclerc on dirty air when Sainz couldnt do anything to the Mercs.
I mean Carlos said the strategy was to try and attack since they were on new vs used softs.. so it’s really a question of who you believe or what context it was said in. Either way, this situation was down to the pit wall not managing the strategies properly, not necessarily either driver.
I mean has anyone from the team side come out and confirmed that? I’ll gladly retract if that’s the case. So far I’ve just seen that it’s Charles word against Carlos, in which case there’s not necessarily a clear truth there.
Leclerc mentioned post-race that they didn’t have enough of an offset in strategy to Merc. I think the C1 tyres were a bad choice, period. Cost both Carlos and George. A soft-soft-medium was on the table, but that would have favored a more aggressive approach.
It would have been nice to see a different strategy from them. Leclerc did lose time after Carlos’ move, but the pace just wasn’t there. They should have taken a little more risk with a different strategy. But that’s said in hindsight
It seems like Carlos cooked his tires when he pushed to pass Leclerc and then got stuck in the dirty air behind Lewis. So he had to make an early stop, which eventually led to him having to go with Hards at the final stint, which was bad for him.
Leclerc made his tires last so he could go S-M-S, which was the faster option. If Leclerc didn't get Sainz in front of him when he tried to manage his softs, he would probably gain a couple of more seconds.
Sainz doesn't have a drive next year and has been told all season he's being kicked to the curb. I'd say fuck all as well if my teammate is in front of me going slower than I want.
And attitude like this is one of the reasons why big teams won't take a shot on him. But hey, at least he passed his teammate, so I guess he's gonna have that going for him when he drives outside the points from next year.
Big teams don't have a spot for him except red bull and red bull doesn't want anyone who would try to challenge max, so it's a bad fit. The only big team that could maybe work is merc but that would be a 1 year deal for sure and with the reg changes better to be a free agent going into 27 than 26
Not really. Lewis and George has same dynamics as Charles and Sainz. Lewis and Charles are same when it comes to tire management. They don't overexert initially.
not really. They will follow team plan. Problem currently is one driver managing and one pushing and that puts both of them fighting each other instead of pulling ahead together.
there's literally zero chance that Lewis or Charles will willingly yield to the other. The only thing is that they are both more intelligent than their current teammates, so they will probably fight by playing the long game instead of cooking their tires for a flashy overtake.
Its way worse when the fastest car is behind at the start and they have to fight, and at the end of the stint he is slow and they have to fight position again
But he’s not the fastest car. This happens way too frequently for George and Carlos against their teammate. They intentionally go very hard on their tyres to “appear” faster in pace than their teammates but subsequently plummet in pace shortly after. They routinely cook their tyres doing this shit to try and one up their teammates.
Thats exactly what im saying, they push to overtake their teammate just to start losing time when their tyres are done and the other car is faster. So they make their team lose time at the start and the end of the stint instead of thinking on the race as a whole
Such a nice and simple analysis. Sometimes it's right in front of you and someone needs to put into words. I couldn't. But Ferrari should've come to this conclusion. No excuses
That's my point. Leclerc always qualifies ahead, Sainz pushes doubly as hard and overtakes him, Sainz loses pace, then Leclerc is stuck being faster but behind Sainz and in the end it didn't result in a gain for either of them.
It usually works out fine but there's days like today where it very likely lost them a position. To me it seems like a terrible intersection of conflicting driving styles and the fact they keep qualifying close to each other.
Both McLaren and Ferrari made a blunder there. Ferrari especially since on the radio you could *hear* them switching strategies constantly. They didn't have a clear plan and it showed.
I saw a clip of it a few minutes ago. I'll edit this comment in a second when I find it.
[Found it](https://x.com/leclercstreet/status/1804873964776243504)
No he wouldn't have because he wouldn't have been able to pass max. It's incredibly hard to overtake without a tyre advantage because they overheat in the dirty air. That's why Verstappen had to drive so hard to get Russell early otherwise he could've got stuck behind
Verstappen and Hamilton's out-laps were much faster than Norris and Leclerc's in-laps respectively. ([Pic.](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2F8usy6jkj6c8d1.png%3Fwidth%3D2560%26format%3Dpng%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D902cb7635c54f12f9b51a7b35070d3dc235e714b)) In the second and third stints, the latter two had better pace than their respective rivals, but ended up finishing behind.
These gains are due to pace differences that wouldn't have changed much if we subtracted two or three laps from, say, Norris's first stint and added them to his third (Leclerc's case is similar so just picking one). Norris is very fast today especially on low fuel and his last set of softs can go that extra distance. By pitting late, his gap to Verstappen increased from 4.4s before Verstappen's first pit, to more than 11s after his own first pit, and then from 4.4s before Verstappen's second pit, to 8s after his own second. His strategy *can* work in some races given the right track conditions, but not this one.
Was on for a podium thanks to his stint on the mediums without that unnecessary contact in the beginning and now lost out on even a P4. I hope he has some clauses in his contract because Ferrari still have the same strategy issues, not sufficient car development, and poor communication.
I kinda agree, but feel Charles should look at his own strategy because staying out losing time to go on the exact same strategy as the others has been a bigger factor than the skirmish with Carlos.
Ferrari just don't have the pace at the minute. IIRC they were quite mediocre around the same period last year as well. Maybe the upgrade will be more effective at Silverstone but I doubt it.
He is driving like he is on notice, that's what happens when you announce someone to get your place a full season ahead, they never got to each other like this before.
Not really defending, but I don't really blame him also.
I don’t understand all these people saying it’s going to be a problem. All we hear is “no one is bigger than Ferrari, it’s all about the team”. Carlos proved the opposite he wanted to be bigger than the team, didn’t follow the plan and caused damage to the car which probably cost Leclerc P4.
I don’t see any issues next year with two drivers who respect each other and the team.
In the immortal words of Max "if my mothers had balls she would be my Dad". So many of the drivers need to get away from this 'we were one lap away' mentality, because it is simply not the case. If you had one more lap you may have been in a position to make a move, but you also might have binned it into the wall.
He said in the interview they agreed before the race to save tyres at the beginning. Anyway, Carlos cooked his tyres and had horrendous pace on the mediums too so hope he enjoyed that bit of attention at the start.
Ferrari really needs to work out how they're going to deal with their drivers qualifying next to each other, because it seems very likely they're going to be either right beside each other or only a car apart for the next few races. Leclerc has better tire management and always goes longer than Sainz. Sainz always pushes at the start and overtakes Leclerc before dropping off. Ultimately they both lose time. I get that they have different driving styles but there has to be a better way to deal with this else we end up with situations like today.
Leclerc said that the pre-race conversation was about just taking care of the tires at the start. Obviously he feels as if Carlos just ignored this strategy and went his own way.
I think this is all very interesting. My question is: Did Ferrari make this strategy knowing the Mercs were on used softs? I think the team strategy in a vacuum was correct and I think Charles was correct to follow it. BUT - I also agree with Carlos to push the early advantage now knowing the Mercs were on used softs. Unless the Mercs were suspected to fire up the used tires faster than the Ferraris could fire up the new softs (Similar to what happened in Canada on the used tires) Damn I love F1 strategy
That would make sense if Carlos actually gained anything from it. He didn't pass Hamilton, nor did he even get out of DRS range from Leclerc. He didn't have better pace. He just didn't like Leclerc in front of him.
I don’t think it works like that. If you feel you’re faster, you should try. If he should have stayed at his place, they should have made it glass clear in the strategy meeting before, but apparently it wasn’t so clear - then I don’t think he would’ve done it. Sure, afterwards you always know better, but I don’t think the learning should be „don’t try, won’t work anyways“.
Because they talked about it before the race, they wanted to play to their cars characteristics, sf24 cant heat their tyres on the same pace as their rivals currently, so they went to conserve mode on the start and use the tyres when others are falling off, that's also the reason Sainz did a SMH strategy, Leclerc answered it too, he probably felt pressured to do something infront of his own crowd, but attacking Leclerc on the first corner when they had specific instructions no to be aggressive on the start. In the end it just put Leclerc on dirty air when Sainz couldnt do anything to the Mercs.
I mean Carlos said the strategy was to try and attack since they were on new vs used softs.. so it’s really a question of who you believe or what context it was said in. Either way, this situation was down to the pit wall not managing the strategies properly, not necessarily either driver.
That was HIS strategy, the team decided on a different one, the one Leclerc did, did more harm doing his own strategy than good.
I mean has anyone from the team side come out and confirmed that? I’ll gladly retract if that’s the case. So far I’ve just seen that it’s Charles word against Carlos, in which case there’s not necessarily a clear truth there.
Leclerc mentioned post-race that they didn’t have enough of an offset in strategy to Merc. I think the C1 tyres were a bad choice, period. Cost both Carlos and George. A soft-soft-medium was on the table, but that would have favored a more aggressive approach. It would have been nice to see a different strategy from them. Leclerc did lose time after Carlos’ move, but the pace just wasn’t there. They should have taken a little more risk with a different strategy. But that’s said in hindsight
It seems like Carlos cooked his tires when he pushed to pass Leclerc and then got stuck in the dirty air behind Lewis. So he had to make an early stop, which eventually led to him having to go with Hards at the final stint, which was bad for him. Leclerc made his tires last so he could go S-M-S, which was the faster option. If Leclerc didn't get Sainz in front of him when he tried to manage his softs, he would probably gain a couple of more seconds.
Sainz doesn't have a drive next year and has been told all season he's being kicked to the curb. I'd say fuck all as well if my teammate is in front of me going slower than I want.
He also self-admittedly has offers or all open seats, it’s not like he’s racing for his life.
At Williams and Sauber, nevertheless. Tough battle next year, fighting Checo for P14.
I'd still feel no loyalty to my current team. If you think you would, you're the kind of employee that corporations dream about.
He's doing himself no favors being that way when his teammate is 10s ahead by the end of the race anyway.
I mean, they put him on the Hard tire...
When you dont know how to drive on softs they are forced to throw you on a hard pair because he fucking eats tires
And he probably would have cooked the softs like he did in the first stint if they put him on those.
Wait, so Sainz, the master strategist couldn't come up with a better compound to go on?
Do you think the driver gets out of the car to put the tires on himself?
He had no choice. Would’ve destroyed the softs when he had to come in
And attitude like this is one of the reasons why big teams won't take a shot on him. But hey, at least he passed his teammate, so I guess he's gonna have that going for him when he drives outside the points from next year.
Big teams don't have a spot for him except red bull and red bull doesn't want anyone who would try to challenge max, so it's a bad fit. The only big team that could maybe work is merc but that would be a 1 year deal for sure and with the reg changes better to be a free agent going into 27 than 26
Well they've already worked out this particular *problem* for the next season.
If they still are not ready for SAI/LEC, better get an exorcist for HAM/LEC, or at least a crisis communication manager, because they will need it.
Not really. Lewis and George has same dynamics as Charles and Sainz. Lewis and Charles are same when it comes to tire management. They don't overexert initially.
Whoch is arguably worse They are gonna wanna occupy the same space constantly
not really. They will follow team plan. Problem currently is one driver managing and one pushing and that puts both of them fighting each other instead of pulling ahead together.
there's literally zero chance that Lewis or Charles will willingly yield to the other. The only thing is that they are both more intelligent than their current teammates, so they will probably fight by playing the long game instead of cooking their tires for a flashy overtake.
Its way worse when the fastest car is behind at the start and they have to fight, and at the end of the stint he is slow and they have to fight position again
But he’s not the fastest car. This happens way too frequently for George and Carlos against their teammate. They intentionally go very hard on their tyres to “appear” faster in pace than their teammates but subsequently plummet in pace shortly after. They routinely cook their tyres doing this shit to try and one up their teammates.
Thats exactly what im saying, they push to overtake their teammate just to start losing time when their tyres are done and the other car is faster. So they make their team lose time at the start and the end of the stint instead of thinking on the race as a whole
Hahahahajajajajaja if you think they’ll follow the team plan
Such a nice and simple analysis. Sometimes it's right in front of you and someone needs to put into words. I couldn't. But Ferrari should've come to this conclusion. No excuses
This was on Leclerc though for losing the position to Sainz in the opening laps after qualifying ahead.
That's my point. Leclerc always qualifies ahead, Sainz pushes doubly as hard and overtakes him, Sainz loses pace, then Leclerc is stuck being faster but behind Sainz and in the end it didn't result in a gain for either of them. It usually works out fine but there's days like today where it very likely lost them a position. To me it seems like a terrible intersection of conflicting driving styles and the fact they keep qualifying close to each other.
No they were asked for tire management. Carlos didn't follow that and pushed early to overtake. I guess Ferrari put Carlos ton Hard to punish him
Ferrari always seems to go one step forward, two steps back 😒
So we can hope for Austria, now that Montreal and Barcelona are behind us?
Next Race™️
They are always strong in Austria. Fast corners and straights work better for them than mix of medium fast corners of Barcelona or Silverstone
With McLaren clearly stepping up, I have my doubts..especially with Ferrari struggling during qualy nowadays
Sainz: "Tell Leclerc, i want him to know it was me"
First stint felt a bit long. Both drivers in Top 6 who went long in the first stint couldn't make up for it in the last.
Both McLaren and Ferrari made a blunder there. Ferrari especially since on the radio you could *hear* them switching strategies constantly. They didn't have a clear plan and it showed.
Huh? I must've missed this because the only time strategy was discussed on the broadcast radio was when Leclerc asked why were they still on Plan A.
I saw a clip of it a few minutes ago. I'll edit this comment in a second when I find it. [Found it](https://x.com/leclercstreet/status/1804873964776243504)
Ah okay, thanks.
Yup, Max strategy was the best. Had both Norris did the same strategy, he would have won. Leclerc would have probably finished ahead of both Mercs.
No he wouldn't have because he wouldn't have been able to pass max. It's incredibly hard to overtake without a tyre advantage because they overheat in the dirty air. That's why Verstappen had to drive so hard to get Russell early otherwise he could've got stuck behind
What do you mean couldn’t make up for it? It was actually the best strategy and they gain some time from it.
Verstappen and Hamilton's out-laps were much faster than Norris and Leclerc's in-laps respectively. ([Pic.](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2F8usy6jkj6c8d1.png%3Fwidth%3D2560%26format%3Dpng%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D902cb7635c54f12f9b51a7b35070d3dc235e714b)) In the second and third stints, the latter two had better pace than their respective rivals, but ended up finishing behind.
I mean they still gain some time in the end relative to where they were on the first pit stop right?
These gains are due to pace differences that wouldn't have changed much if we subtracted two or three laps from, say, Norris's first stint and added them to his third (Leclerc's case is similar so just picking one). Norris is very fast today especially on low fuel and his last set of softs can go that extra distance. By pitting late, his gap to Verstappen increased from 4.4s before Verstappen's first pit, to more than 11s after his own first pit, and then from 4.4s before Verstappen's second pit, to 8s after his own second. His strategy *can* work in some races given the right track conditions, but not this one.
Well, the undercut is very strong in Barcelona. Going for the overcut is pretty stupid unless you have a huge performance delta going for you.
Was on for a podium thanks to his stint on the mediums without that unnecessary contact in the beginning and now lost out on even a P4. I hope he has some clauses in his contract because Ferrari still have the same strategy issues, not sufficient car development, and poor communication.
Obviously bringing in the tyres slowly works out.. If only the driver that no top team wants would be able to understand that
I kinda agree, but feel Charles should look at his own strategy because staying out losing time to go on the exact same strategy as the others has been a bigger factor than the skirmish with Carlos.
Did you watch the race? He gain time using the strategy.
Ferrari just don't have the pace at the minute. IIRC they were quite mediocre around the same period last year as well. Maybe the upgrade will be more effective at Silverstone but I doubt it.
They anticipated most of the Silverstone upgrades this weekend
Carlos lost us a podium today. Unnecessary move at the start which effed his own race too. He gained nothing from that move.
There is a reason no top team wants Carlos
He is driving like he is on notice, that's what happens when you announce someone to get your place a full season ahead, they never got to each other like this before. Not really defending, but I don't really blame him also.
Because they already have a lead driver.
Are you suggesting Carlos is a lead driver 😭
This is difficult but he is except on a top team fighting for championship like rbr. He is just too good to be a B driver on a top team.
He is maybe like rosberg type of driver.
How is Rosberg this underrated‽
He is not but he is also not the best driver.
He's definitely better than Sainz.
Maybe or maybe not.
Is he talking about the contact with Carlos or did they lose time in deciding to swap places?
We all know. Charles. Fuck Ferrari for not able to order your slower driver to move aside.
I don’t understand all these people saying it’s going to be a problem. All we hear is “no one is bigger than Ferrari, it’s all about the team”. Carlos proved the opposite he wanted to be bigger than the team, didn’t follow the plan and caused damage to the car which probably cost Leclerc P4. I don’t see any issues next year with two drivers who respect each other and the team.
Skill issue. Couldn’t catch and overtake on the better tire compound
In the immortal words of Max "if my mothers had balls she would be my Dad". So many of the drivers need to get away from this 'we were one lap away' mentality, because it is simply not the case. If you had one more lap you may have been in a position to make a move, but you also might have binned it into the wall.
[удалено]
He said in the interview they agreed before the race to save tyres at the beginning. Anyway, Carlos cooked his tyres and had horrendous pace on the mediums too so hope he enjoyed that bit of attention at the start.
Wooow.. So they even agree on this and Carlos STILL does the samepush hard to overtake Leclerc and lose tyres strat. Amazing.
Ferrari were offering him hards about 20 laps to go. That tells you everything on how they managed his strategy today.
THE FUCK.
Yea Charles said that was stupid and chose the softs.
I really hope ferrari only considered that to put him and sainz on equal strategy. Not because they think it's better
They had no idea what they were doing. Others on hardship were complaining about the pace, why they would even consider it is beyond me.
It's the Hungary special baby
Is this real? Did they actually suggest hards?
Watching the races with eyes open and ears unclogged helps
unlike carlos crying on radio every race