A frustrated Sebastian Vettel publicly reprimanded his Ferrari Formula 1 team at the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix for placing him in traffic after a strategy that “made no sense” according to the German driver.
On the other side of the garage, Charles Leclerc was able to take fourth place at the finish of the race, in particular, because the Monegasque insisted that his team make only one stop during the race, unlike his team-mate who was asked to stop twice.
The incident led the media to question whether Ferrari had sacrificed Vettel’s car – which finished twelfth – in order to avoid a fight between team-mates on the track on Sunday. But Mattia Binotto refuted that claim.
“I don’t think we sacrificed Seb. We saw that it wouldn’t have made any difference for him to stop sooner or later,” said Binotto, quoted by the F1 world championship website.
“By looking at all the data, ultimately leaving Seb on the track, we might have left at least the strategy of one stop open for him too, which we didn’t do, but it wasn’t a question of sacrificing or not sacrificing.
“We’ve always said that maximising the team’s points is the first priority and that’s what we’re trying to achieve, and anyway there’s no compromise. ”
As for Vettel, after telling the media in post-race interviews that Ferrari’s strategy “made no sense”, the German was in a more conciliatory mood when he was interviewed alongside Mattia Binotto.
“I don’t want to get into that.” said Vettel – who will leave the Ferrari team at the end of the 2020 season.
“It was obviously not the best race for me, but I trust the team I have around me and everyone in the garage as well… ”
“I’m pretty open for the next race and I don’t think it’s possible to do worse than that, so it should get better. ”
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