Formula 1: How Ferrari lost a GP that belonged entirely to them

In Monaco, Ferrari’s loss to Red Bull, even to Sergio Perez, was a much more painful experience than the loss in Miami. It’s not because the Scuderia fell victim to the strategic alert of rain – which, if it didn’t come, would likely give Charles Leclerc an easy stroll at this year’s Formula One 7th race.

It was more painful because the Monaco race was one that perfectly and perfectly suited the Ferrari F1-75 and one that must therefore be won by a team aiming for the championship. In contrast, the Miami GP was a Red Bull race from the start on a track that everyone knew matched the characteristics of the RB18. So Ferrari didn’t have much to do in Florida. It was a defeat within the program.

In Monaco, on the other hand, only victory and no more than 1: 2 were on the program. And the price of this defeat can be fatal for the titles. Miami’s long straight lines have always made the RBR an all-time favorite, given the RB18’s obvious top-speed superiority.

But Monaco is the tightest and slowest track on the programme, and it fitted like a glove with the Ferrari F1-75’s great virtue: its much stronger acceleration exiting from slow speeds. The only place where RBR was anywhere near par with Ferrari over the three days was on the series of corners from the Casino to Mirabo, the Lowes and the chicane before the tunnel.

There, the very short distances between the corners did not allow Ferrari to unleash the much more powerful “explosion” of its engine at the exit of slow corners. A blast said to be due to its smaller turbo (supercharger) giving a much stronger response on the throttle while sharing power from the two electric motors.

The larger RBR turbo gives Max Ferstappen-Sergio Perez a longer power output and therefore more torque at very high revs, larger gear ratios and therefore a higher top speed. Together with the slightly more efficient rear wing, of course, less drag than Ferrari.

However, Monaco has only a few high-speed spots, so RBR could not use this qualification. Leclerc’s big difference of 0.4” to Ferstappen on Friday was absolutely realistic. And here it is: The Ferrari F1-75 has shown with 5 pole positions in 7 races this year that it can warm up its tires for a qualifying lap much faster.

On the contrary, despite the best preparation, Ferstappen complained about a lack of traction in the first corners of the track during the Friday tests. Leclerc thus secured pole position for a race that is more critical than any other: Because overtaking in Monaco is practically impossible – at least without great risk.

The painful loss of a certain victory

So for three days in Monaco everything was on Ferrari’s side. But what exactly happened and Ferrari lost it? Let’s start at the beginning: the rain that fell just before the start, delaying it by 65 minutes, as well as an electrical problem that caused the organization’s systems, made it necessary to start behind the safety vehicle and therefore – by regulation – the Start using fully wet tires.

Everything would now be measured by when the ideal line dries enough – and how much it dries. And when that happens, should you go for intermediate wet tires first, or wait to go straight to the discs to dry? Things for Ferrari were already starting to lose the perfect balance they would have had it never rained over Monte.

Leclerc-Saint-Perez-Ferstappen stayed in formation for the first 16 laps, but then RBR and Perez made the decision that would prove wise: they came in first to start the intermediate rain. Leclerc then had an 8.5 inch lead over Perez and wasn’t stressing, so he didn’t pit in the next pass, waiting to dry the discs soon.

But then the Scuderia experienced an unpleasant surprise: Ceko’s pace in the intermittent rain was brilliant: he covered the difference at a speed of over 4 seconds per lap! Ferrari then realized they had grossly underestimated the intermediates and immediately called Leclerc for intermediates, two laps after Perez.

He had underestimated them so much that Monegasque rejoined the track behind Perez. It was a great undercut by Cheko. What would happen later would in hindsight prove to be a wrong decision, as Leclerc said: “The decision was clear and completely wrong. And from that moment the confusion began”.

At the same time, Sainth was leading the race, waiting for the moment for what he originally chose: to just pit and drive straight out of the torrential rain into the slices.

Perez was behind him, Leclerc third and Ferstappen (who also came to put on the intermediate wets) fourth. Saint knew the Mexican needed one more pit stop so he felt in control of the win. “I think we made the right decision because we were basically the vanguard of the fight.he said at the end.

Carlos went into the 21st round for the slices. But as soon as the Spaniard got back on track, he encountered the Nicolas Latifi Williams obstacle. The time Sainte lost behind the Canadian proved crucial to the win as Perez advanced to the next lap and managed to make the overcut: to get back in front of Sainte.

Meanwhile, Leclerc had to re-enter to put the discs down. Ferrari estimated that Leclerc was far enough away from Sainte to be able to invite them into the pits together on the same lap. However, such was the wear and tear from Carlos’ torrential rain around the entrance to the pits that Leclerc got a lot closer to him than Scuderia thought.

He realized this after Monegasque entered the box. His engineer Javier Padros yelled at him to stay on track, causing Leclerc to explode on the radio, but it was too late. Had the 24-year-old not pitted at that point and stayed one more lap with the intermediate eraser, he would not have lost 3rd place to Ferstappen and the difference between the Dutchman and Monegasco at the top of the league would have been reduced to 3 points , rather than increasing to 9 as it eventually did.

The delay of around two seconds proved crucial, as when Ferstappen returned to the track after his own pit stop he managed to lock himself fully and completely in front of Leclerc, lowering the accelerator violently and pushing the rear of the RB18 over his line . left the pits from his onslaught.

Leclerc: ‘We can’t afford to miss opportunities like this’

“It’s not fair to say that Ferrari disappointed me,” Leclerc said in a question at the end. “Sometimes mistakes happen. But today we made a lot of mistakes. In such circumstances you rely a little on what the team can see because you don’t know what others are doing with the intermediate tires or discs. I was asked if I wanted to .” go straight from the completely rained into the slices, and i answered “yes, but not yet”.

I don’t understand what caused us to intervene. Perez undercut us and I got stuck behind Carlos [στο δεύτερο πιτ-στοπ]. Many mistakes have been made and we cannot afford them. Especially given the situation we are in right now. We’re extremely strong, our pace is very good and we have to seize these chances. “We can’t lose that many points that way.”closed.

Scuderia CEO Matthias Binotto said: “Fourth place shows that something went wrong in our decisions and we absolutely need to investigate. I think we underestimated the speed of the intermediate wet tires at this stage of the race. [στον 16ο-18ο γύρο]. Maybe we could have called Charles a round earlier. Or we should have given him more time in the heavy rain and called him later about cuts. “These are mistakes that can happen and we have to understand why we made them.”

RBR thus won with its strategic perfection and with the driving mastery with which Perez and Ferstappen implemented their momentary intelligent decisions. In the end, both drivers handled the middle tire so well (they chose it after Mick Schumacher’s crash was stopped because he needed a softer tire than the hard Ferrari due to the RB18’s lag in heating up) to achieve an unexpected result.

And Perez proved to be a top-notch driver – perhaps lacking Ferstappen’s charisma or stability, but top-notch – rather than number two behind the Dutchman. The aerodynamics philosophy of this year’s new cars, which comes much closer to their driving style, naturally contributes to this, as does the timeless virtue of excellent tire management. And if there’s one thing that consoles Ferrari, it’s that Cheko won.