By Joe Man
After 150 races, Carlos Sainz is finally a Formula 1 Grand Prix winner. He was a very popular victor all across the paddock, receiving warm congratulations from all his fellow drivers. Even his team mate congratulated him even though it was obvious he was fuming!
It’s becoming clearer every week that Ferrari have a problem. Wheel2Wheel reports predicted this would happen before the season even started.
For a while, 2022 was going beautifully for Ferrari. Charles Leclerc was leading the championship, Red Bull where having mechanical issues and Carlos Sainz was good but not good enough to be fighting with his team mate. Move on a few races and Charles is miles behind Verstappen, the team are making all sorts of mistakes and Sainz is now a race winner and flying.
Everyone was impressed at the start of 2022 how much Leclerc had matured and seemed like he was ready for whatever was thrown at him. Now it seems the old Charles is back and ready to explode. The team no longer have a number one driver and it’s going to be fascinating to see what happens from here. Already both drivers are on the edge of ignoring team orders and bitterness seems to be growing in the team.
It’s hard not to feel a bit sorry for Charles as all of a sudden nothing will go right. Two DNF’s, engine penalties and horrible team errors are costing him dearly. We all witnessed his Monaco dream turning into a nightmare after his team screwed up their pitstops. Much was discussed within the team and the media regarding Ferrari’s decision making leaving much to be desired compared to Mercedes and Red Bull. Yet, at Silverstone, it was the same old story.
The Spaniard lost the lead right at the start however the red flag for Zhou’s horrible crash meant the race was restarted with everyone returning to their original grid positions. This time Carlos got his elbows out with Verstappen and it was great to see. It was clear that Charles already felt he had to make desperate moves and he barrelled into the side of Sergio Perez loosing part of his front wing but luckily not much performance.
A mistake from Sainz on lap 10 allowed Max through leaving the two Ferraris together on track. This is where things began to unravel on the team front. Leclerc began to demand that he be let by his teammate as he was getting backed into Hamilton and clearly had more pace than Sainz. Unfortunately for Ferrari, he was absolutely right. Hamilton was becoming more and more of a problem the longer they failed to act. It took 10 laps of back and fourth radio conversations before the team solved the problem by bringing Sainz in for his pitstop. Leclerc had slightly older tyres and with Verstappen dropping back with his floor damage, had retaken the lead.
The sight of Esteban Ocon coming to a stop on the straight must have been the last thing Charles wanted to see. With the safety car deployed teams had to think fast but Ferrari did not. They had nine seconds to call Charles in but decided to leave him out and pull Sainz in. It is quite possible they felt that if they pitted Leclerc then Hamilton would have stayed out and inherited the lead on still reasonable tyres. He would have been a sitting duck however at the started if Leclerc had pitted. Instead it was the Frenchman who stayed out and became the sitting duck.
We will never know what would have happened without that safety car but Lewis was flying and on newer tyres than the Ferrari pair. Its quite likely that he would have caught them and they would have paid for the earlier indecision.
Sooner or later these two are going to race together on track again and its going to get messy. Leclerc’s record with previous team mate Seb Vettel didn’t go all that well and the same is likely to happen.
Team boss Mattia Binotto was very much on the defensive when asked about the teams decisions and almost seemed unsure what to say himself in post race interviews. They didn’t to work out exactly what they are going to do if the driver behind is quicker. Fighting between the pair is going to play right into the hands of Red Bull and the improving Mercedes.
As each race goes by we are looking more and more like it will be Red Bull and Verstappen’s year. This years red bull is far from bullet proof and Charles needs to get back to dominating his team mate if he is to receive the number one position in the team. If we reach the summer break and the two drivers are close on points then its hard to see it ending well for the Italian giants. They must get there stagger together and score maximum points with both drivers is they are to stop Red Bull from leaving them for dead!
WHEEL2WHEEL REPORTS 