Binotto does not consider Ferrari’s strategies as a weakness

Mattia Binotto has been very clear. He has the right people in his strategic team. This may seem surprising to fans who have heavily criticized the decisions made by the Italian team’s pit wall, which have notably cost valuable points to Charles Leclerc.

In Monaco especially, while the Monegasque driver was leading the race, the strategists took a long time to change Leclerc’s tires. In addition to a late decision-making process, the driver was kept immobilized for too long and returned to the track in fourth place.

At Silverstone, the Italian team made the decision to bring Carlos Sainz into the pit under the safety car while Charles Leclerc was leading the race. The Monegasque, with less soft and more worn-out tires, couldn’t fight against Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez. Once again, he finished the race off the podium.

Then more recently in Hungary, the choice of hard tires completely destroyed the race for the Monégasque, leaving him powerless in his battle with Max Verstappen. He now has a 80-point deficit in the championship and the title seems out of reach.

On Carlos Sainz’s side, the strategy also appeared to be flawed during the French Grand Prix. The members of the Ferrari pit wall gave the impression of not knowing what to do, of being indecisive.

Is strategy not a weakness?

Binotto is open about the fact that Ferrari can do better and must learn from certain races, especially the one in Monaco. However, he does not believe that Ferrari has a fundamental problem with race strategies. He states that there are certain races where Ferrari has beaten Red Bull thanks to better tire choices during the race.

The team leader spoke in the columns of Motorsport: “There is always a way to improve. You cannot, and no one will ever be perfect. No doubt, we must make progress on the aerodynamics, the chassis, the power unit, the strategy, wherever we can do it.”

But after saying that, I think I have an excellent strategic team at my disposal and I do not think it is a weakness. Even if you consider Monaco, Silverstone, or Paul Ricard as failures. I do not see it that way, I think that sometimes, we made the right decisions.

« I am not convinced that what we did at those moments was wrong. I am still convinced that we made the right decisions. Unfortunate at times, but we didn’t make mistakes. And if you look closely, our strategic team did a much better job than the other teams, especially in Austria. In France, that was also the case before Charles’ mistake.

The decisions of the strategic teams are made based on the elements available to them at a given time. It is therefore also possible that the information perceived by the team, such as the course progression or the data at their disposal, may require them to choose a certain type of strategy. Mattia Binotto explains well that his team did not make the wrong choices with the information they had in their possession. Undoubtedly, other parameters could have helped the strategic team make different decisions.