Ferrari made one of the most peculiar tactical calls in the Brazilian Grand Prix and it did not pay off for Charles Leclerc.
On a day of dire weather conditions, most teams held off changing tyres until they could do so with either minimal time loss under a Virtual Safety Car or Safety Car period, or no time loss under a red flag. Ferrari, however, brought Leclerc in during green flag running, the costliest way to change tyres.
Why did they do this? Leclerc was running fifth at the time, keeping Max Verstappen at sword’s length. Perhaps Ferrari assumed Red Bull would soon bring their driver in to ‘undercut’ them by getting him on to fresh rubber sooner.
But any advantage they hoped to gain vanished when Leclerc became stuck behind Oliver Bearman and Lewis Hamilton. Clearly Ferrari either expected to get him out ahead of them, or their performance advantage would be great enough for him to sweep by. Instead, Leclerc spent two laps in their spray, and only got by once they pitted during the VSC period.
Had it not been for the VSC period, Leclerc could have been in a strong position as the rain intensified. Having fresh intermediate tyres fully up to operating temperatures can be a significant advantage over those labouring on worn rubber when fresh rain falls. Unfortunately for Ferrari the track and race conditions did not turn out as they hoped.
As well as Verstappen, Leclerc was running ahead of Gasly when he pitted. Neither of them had the chance to pit during the VSC period, so Leclerc fell behind them. They eventually changed tyres during the red flag.
That left Leclerc seventh when the race restarted. He picked up places from Tsunoda, then Lando Norris and George Russell at the second restart, before falling behind the Mercedes again. Afterwards he said his pit strategy left him on the back foot.
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“We paid the price a lot,” Leclerc told the official F1 channel. “In the first stop we stopped too early and ended up in the traffic and that cost us three or four positions. So then to come back from that was very difficult.
“But P5 in front of both McLarens, at least it’s a damage limitation weekend where we are only losing four points to them today, which could have been a lot worse.”
Both Ferrari drivers complained the SF-24 suffered poor balance in the wet conditions. Carlos Sainz Jnr crashed twice and Leclerc said they…
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