The true Miami chaos revealed from new Ferrari team radio – Praxis is a philosophical term coined by Carl Marx who believed theory informs practice and practice then equally informs theory, ultimately leading to the potential for revolutionary transformation. In a broader definition, Praxis could be said to be a post rationalisation of a prior event.
Ferraris response to the debacle in Miami which saw dithering and delay amongst the team’s strategists could be described as Praxis. Whilst fans and TV analysts across the world saw the inordinate delay in the Ferrari decision to switch their drivers around, Ferrari believe their process of evaluation was indeed full and in line with their planned procedures.
Both Ferrari drivers criticised the team following the chequered flag but a radio message from Charles Leclerc to the team went somewhat under the radar. Having been informed the team wished him to allow Lewis Hamilton through as he was on softer and quicker tyres than the Monegasque, Brian Bozzi his race engineer then informed him of the proximity of Carlos Sainz.
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“Careful with Carlos behind,” Bozzi told Leclerc after dropping behind his team mate. “Oh, that’s stupid. I didn’t know Carlos was that close.” Sainz did close in to within a second and gained the advantage of DRS over the Ferrari driver but as Hamilton had discovered several laps earlier, the overspeed delta required to make the pass was too great although at the time Leclerc was not so sure.
“I need Lewis to go faster,” Charles told Bozzi, “I’ve just got in dirty air now.” He was informed by Bozzi, “Considering the wake, these are good laps” Yet Leclerc persisted with concerns that driving so close to his team mate was compromising his tyre life. “I’m overheating tyres,” he said. “I’m saying that because that’s why I’m losing [time] in [turn] seven-eight, the tyres are warm.”
Hamilton had already spent several laps behind his team mate, waiting more than five minutes from his initial request to be allowed through on the decision from the Ferrari strategy team. He informed the team he was ‘burning up’ his tyres which then appeared to happen to Charles Leclerc.
Having delayed so long, Lewis had lost the best of his fresh medium tyres and in thirteen laps ahead of his team mate he could only halve the deficit to Antonelli ahead to 2.7 seconds. The inevitable call from the pit wall eventually came, for Hamilton to now cede the position back to his team mate with three laps of the race remaining.
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Vasseur: ‘all according to plan’
The usually affable Ferrari boss appeared under pressure when asked for his thoughts on the days events. “On the strategy front, our calls were right,” said Fred Vasseur. “We pitted both our drivers under the Virtual Safety Car and this allowed Lewis to run behind Charles at the restart.
“Then we swapped the cars as soon as we were sure we were not putting Charles at risk from the cars behind, as Lewis was on medium tyres and we wanted to try and catch Kimi Antonelli. It didn’t work so we reversed the call at the end as per our standard procedure.”
So a perfectly orderly and well executed day appears to be the analysis from Ferrari, yet not only does this contain a significant amount of Praxis, some of the tale is just simply not true. Leclerc was not instructed to pit under the virtual safety car, in fact he was already on his way into the pit lane when the VSC was deployed.
Hamilton by way of contrast did fully benefit from the VSC at his pit stop, which is why he made it past Yuki Tsunoda and found himself on the tail of his team mate. As Vasseur claims, the strategy calls may well have been correct, it was the inordinate delay in their execution which tortured fans and commentators alike.
Hamilton not told to let Leclerc through
Lewis spent seven laps directly behind Leclerc and at lap times in excess of 90 seconds, this was indeed a time span of more than ten minutes for Ferrari to consider their options after the pit stop. No wonder Lewis coined a very English phrase suggesting the strategists “take a tea break” while they’re at it.
The as the race approached its conclusion, Leclerc was informed “we will swap the cars in turn 11 now,” said Bozzi, but it didn’t happen creating the impression Hamilton was about to do his own thing. The shocking revelation which came to light when the full radio transcript was available, was that in its chaotic deliberations, Ferrari had failed to give Lewis the message.
“So Lewis was not informed,” Bozzi told Leclerc as turn 11 came and went, “he’s been informed now we will swap the cars at turn 17.” But again the cars remained in the same order. Hamilton was eventually told “we’re going to swap the cars in 17,” said his race engineer Ricardo Adami. “So you don’t think I’m going to catch up or what?” Hamilton answered. “Yes,” Adami replied.
On the next lap Lewis was again instructed, “Go for a swap in 11, please,” to which he complied, but meanwhile Charles Leclerc had radioed in the previous lap, he didn’t believe another swap was worth bothering chasing Antonelli was more important.
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Leclerc not bothered about swap back
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” said theMonegasque driver after being told Lewis had not been given the instruction to let him through. “Now we are seeing Antonelli, let’s try to get him and then otherwise we are going to lose more time than anything. Then we discuss after the race.”
Job done. Charles had clearly realised this entire melodrama was merely for P7 and P8, yet the team persisted against the advice of their own driver to once again switch the cars around.
Vasseur’s explanation of the days proceedings is clearly a fantastical “nothing to see here.” The Praxis that everything went to plan is an utter myth. The problem with post rationalisation of a previous event, depends on the prism used to make the analysis. Fred starts from a position that nothing out of the ordinary occurred in Miami, but this delusional perspective serves Ferrari badly in terms of sorting out the mess that is their strategy team’s communication.
Lewis Hamilton was praised by 2009 F1 champion Jenson Button, for his honest appraisal of what was an embarrassment for Ferrari. After a better weekend than the previous two in the middle east, Hamilton first couched his analysis of the days events saying he was “super positive” looking forward to the European racing season.
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“All I could see is a Mercedes ahead and I was thinking maybe we can get up to sixth or something, but we lost a lot of time in those laps [behind Leclerc]. I was clearly good for it in that moment, and I didn’t think the decision came quick enough. I have no problems with either team or with Charles, but I think we could do better,” was the blunt assessment delivered by Hamilton with a genuine smile on his face.
His honest analysis of the day at Ferrari was recognised by Jenson Button who observed of Hamilton’s interviews and demeanour, “Yeah, we’re talking about communication in the car, but also communication in interviews, he came across really well, didn’t he Lewis, compared to the rest of the team.”
Praxis will only help Ferrari when their team principal takes a long hard and honest look at the goings on which have plagued Ferrari for years. With 70 million people watching on, claiming Ferrari were delivering “business as usual” is laughable, but those in Maranello don’t seem to the world’s sniggers at their shambolic efforts to manage their racing cars.
Yet as Ferrari ambassador Marc Gene suggested to Sky Italia, ‘all’s well in Ferrari’s world’ – maybe they’re just used to the chaos.
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With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
