Transcript: How Red Bull seized a win that ‘Ferrari looked like they had in the bag’

2022 Monaco Grand Prix

2nd June 2022, 7:152nd June 2022, 23:08 | Written by Keith Collantine

Red Bull’s Monaco Grand Prix win was a strategic triumph over rivals Ferrari on a day when either team could have won the race.

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Ferrari held a strong hand at the start. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jnr locked out the front row of the grid, banishing the Red Bull pair to row two.

A pre-race downpour meant proceedings began with a rolling start, depriving the Red Bull drivers of an opportunity to split the Ferraris. But it also increased the opportunity for them to capture the lead via strategy.

The whole field had to start the race on the full wet weather tyres. With no further rain falling and the track drying out quickly on a warm afternoon, it was clear drivers would eventually end up on slick tyres.

Whoever found the quickest route slicks stood a great chance of taking the lead. The teams faced two routes: A conventional transition to intermediates and then slicks, or jumping straight from the ‘extreme’ full wets to dry-weather rubber, as Lewis Hamilton used to win the race in similar conditions six years earlier.

After the Safety Car peeled into the pits Leclerc led the field away. Behind him Sainz was pursued by the Red Bull pair, all four hunting for grip on the treacherous surface:

Lap	VER	Message	PER	Message	LEC	Message	SAI	Message
6			Perez	I’m struggling a little bit for traction. The rest I think we are quicker than Sainz.	Marcos Padros	The only place losing to Sainz is braking later for turn 10, we need to try to brake later turn 10 and better exit.	Adami	Perez two seconds behind. Perez lap time 38.2. Good job.
			Bird	Okay copy Checo. How are conditions?
			Perez	They are improving.
7	Lambiase	How are conditions Max?	Bird	Strat eight if you can, strat eight if you can.	Marcos Padros	So gap to Sainz behind 3.4. Some cars on inters but they are not faster than us at the moment.
	Verstappen	Drying but still a bit tricky on these tyres.	Bird	Mode six. Mode six.
	Lambiase	Copy.
	Verstappen	Like I’m moving a lot on the rubber.
	Lambiase	Yeah copy.
8	Verstappen	Okay Max so just keep on top of the tyres. We are monitoring pit windows.	Perez	What can I do to help traction?	Marcos Padros	Gap to Sainz behind 3.3. As a reference Perez lap time behind Sainz 37.2.
			Bird	Torque three to help rotation and then help the traction. Rear tyres started to get a bit on the warm side.
9	Lambiase	Max let me know if you’d like a recommendation on tools.	Perez	Yeah. The car doesn’t turn into 15. What shall I do there?	Marcos Padros	Gap to Sainz behind 4.0. Sainz lap time 37.1 as a reference.	Adami	Perez 1.2 behind.
	Verstappen	No, that’s okay.	Bird	Having a look. Think about hand brake for turn 15, hand brake for turn 15.
	Lambiase	Understood.	Bird	So rear tyre temps are still rising a little bit above target now.
	Verstappen	Turn 12 becomes very slippery.

As the conditions improved Leclerc picked up his pace at the front and began to put some distance between himself and team mate Sainz. Perez, running third, told his team he was losing time behind the second Ferrari.

Leclerc was in a strong position in the opening laps

“Charles in the early laps seemed to have things pretty much under control,” said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner. “He’d got the buffer of his team mate behind him as well. At that point in time it looked like Ferrari had the race in the bag.”

Max Verstappen’s radio chatter was strikingly different to his rivals, particularly the Ferraris, in that there was far less communication going on. For an eight-minute stretch, while the Ferrari drivers were getting constant updates on lap times and tyre temperatures, Verstappen circulated without a word between him and race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.

Meanwhile Sainz, running in second place, had become convinced that switched directly to slicks, skipping the intermediates, was the best way to go, and made his preference clear to his team:

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Lap	VER	Message	PER	Message	LEC	Message	SAI	Message
10	Lambiase	Understood.	Perez	What’s the pace of Leclerc?	Marcos Padros	And Safety Car window is open.	Adami	Try to improve first sector if you can. The rest is very good. First sector.
	Verstappen	Here it’s getting quite dry.	Bird	Leclerc’s last lap a 36.3.	Marcos Padros	Gap to Sainz behind 4.3. Sainz lap time 36.9.
	Lambiase	Understood, thank you.	Bird	Mode 10, mode 10.
11			Perez	I’m just held up by Carlos.	Marcos Padros	That was a good lap. Gap to Sainz behind 5.0. Sainz lap times 35.9.	Adami	Charles lap time 5.3, for info, Perez 5.9.
			Bird	Yeah. Copy, Checo.
			Bird	Checo, rear tyres are getting on the warm side now. Try and cool them where you can. That’ll help your traction.
12			Bird	Okay so try and cool these tyres where you can.	Marcos Padros	Gap to Sainz behind 5.2. Sainz lap time 35.3. The only place losing turn 12 apex speed.	Adami	Losing around three-tenths in turn one for info, but I leave it to you to judge the risk. Three tenths to Charles.
			Perez	It’s definitely inters now.			Adami	Last lap the first sector was good, only two-tenths.
			Bird	Okay. Copy, Checo.
13			Bird	Click overtake, click overtake.	Marcos Padros	And secondary RB Position one when you can. RB one when you can. And let me know track condition.	Adami	Go back to lap mode race when you want, lap mode race for temperatures. All is good.
					Leclerc	It’s drying up quickly	Adami	Perez lap time 4.1, same lap time as Charles, good job.
					Marcos Padros	Okay. Copy that. And other drivers thinking about going straight to slicks. Let me know your opinion on that.
14			Bird	Try and cool the tyres, they’re on the hot side now.	Leclerc	Yeah could be a thing but not now.	Sainz	We’re going to go straight to dry.
			Bird	Press and hold overtake, just need to drain the SOC a little bit.	Marcos Padros	Understood. Sainz lap time 33.0.	Adami	Okay, understood.
							Adami	Tyre temperatures are good like this. Try some wet patches if you can. Not hotter that this if you can.
							Adami	Charles lap time 33.3, you are four-tenths faster and purple out there.

Red Bull made their move on lap 15, bringing Perez in. This was likely provoked by Lewis Hamilton’s pit stop the lap before, which left a gap for fifth-placed Lando Norris to drop into. Once Norris pitted, a gap for Perez would appear.

Perez’s pit stop provoked a reaction from Ferrari

As it happened, McLaren didn’t bring Norris in, and Perez emerged behind him. Fortunately for Perez it took him a lap to catch the McLaren, at which point Norris peeled into the pits, and Perez was able to press on with clear air ahead of him. Others would not be so fortunate.

Strikingly, while Ferrari debated their tyre preferences, at Red Bull the drivers were simply told to pit when the best strategic option became clear to the team.

“You’ve got to have effective and clear communication,” said Horner. “I think as a pit wall we worked, we had all the information, we were using the information well to get that crossover right.

“We were debating whether you go straight from the extreme onto the slick, as we saw with Lewis when it hurt us a few years ago with Daniel [Ricciardo]. But we decided it was a quicker route to go through the inter onto the slick. The power of the out-lap was enormous and I think Checo absolutely nailed it.”

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Lap	VER	Message	PER	Message	LEC	Message	SAI	Message
15	Lambiase	Mode three Max, mode three when you can.	Bird	Strat five, strat five.	Marcos Padros	And if possible, try to use wet patches for tyre temps.	Adami	For info Safety Car window is open for inters, just in case.
			Perez	Yeah. I’m managing the tyre.	Marcos Padros	Gap to Sainz behind, Sainz lap time 32.6.	Sainz	Copy.
			Perez	Let me know when you need to close me up to Sainz.			Adami	Charles lap time 32.0. For info Gasly with inters 31.2 at the back. We are monitoring. Get your plan.
			Bird	Copy.
			Bird	PU eight position one. PU eight position one. Minus three.
			Bird	Box, Checo box.

Having seen Perez pit, Ferrari felt the need to respond. Sainz was called in first but he expressed doubt, reasserting his preference to wait for the crossover point to slicks.

Leclerc was less emphatic about his tyre preference. Having been advised of Perez’s move he told the team “inter would be much quicker, for sure.” He was called in soon afterwards and put on a set of intermediates.

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Lap	VER	Message	PER	Message	LEC	Message	SAI	Message
16			Bird	Aggressive launch.	Marcos Padros	So Perez just pitted now, we believe for inters. Confirm inters on Perez.	Adami	Hamilton has pitted for inters, for reference, and Perez is three seconds behind.
			Bird	Tyre four, tyre four.			Adami	And push, in-lap. Perez is in for inters. Push, in-lap.
			Bird	Okay. Norris just coming past now. Russell’s on the main straight. Let’s go get ’em. Hunt down Norris.			Sainz	I’m not sure it’s the right call. It’s nearly ready for dry, yeah?
			Bird	Strat five when you can, strat five when you can.			Adami	Okay, copy, we’ll come back to you.
			Bird	Let’s go, Checo, let’s use this tyre.			Adami	We would like to cover Checo on our side.
			Bird	You’ve got the grip over Norris, let’s do it.
			Bird	All out, Sainz is pitting, Sainz is pitting, all out.
17	Lambiase	Max that last lap was the fastest of the top three.	Bird	Okay Sainz has stayed out. Let’s clear Norris.	Leclerc	Inter would be much quicker, for sure.	Sainz	I don’t think it’s the right thing to do.
			Bird	Okay free air, let’s go.	Marcos Padros	Copy, understood.	Sainz	In five, six laps, might be dry.
			Bird	Okay Leclerc might be putting let’s push, let’s push, get the undercut here, get the undercut.	Marcos Padros	Gap to Sainz behind 6.3. I will let you know the lap times from Perez.	Adami	And box, confirm, box. We need to respond to Checo.
			Bird	All out. Okay press and hold, press and hold, you’re racing Leclerc here.	Marcos Padros	And box this lap, box, pit confirm.	Adami	And stay out, stay out.
							Sainz	Copy, stay out.
							Adami	Charles lap time 31.4.
							Adami	Verstappen four seconds behind.

This was the point Leclerc’s race started to go wrong. Perez gained so much time in the two laps between his pit stop and Leclerc’s that he jumped ahead of the former race leader. Had Ferrari seen that coming, they would surely have left Leclerc out and waited to put him on slicks.

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Lap	VER	Message	PER	Message	LEC	Message	SAI	Message
18	Lambiase	Push, Max, push.	Bird	Okay mate Leclerc’s in turn three.	Leclerc	Box this lap.	Adami	Charles is coming in for inters. Verstappen 2.8 behind, 2.8.
	Lambiase	Box and pit confirm Max. Box, pit confirm.	Bird	Nice lap, you’re reeling Sainz in. We can manage it now, just chip away at his times.	Marcos Padros	Multi-function tyre position seven, tyre position seven when you can.	Sainz	Happy to stay out.
	Lambiase	Strat eight, tyre four, torque nine.	Bird	Strat five. Strat five.	Marcos Padros	And box now, box. Verstappen also pitted.	Adami	Okay. Understood.
	Lambiase	Very close to Russell, close with Russell.	Bird	Sainz might be going long here, might be trying to run onto a slick so keep this tyre in shape.	Marcos Padros	Will be tight with Perez.	Sainz	Stay out until dry.
	Lambiase	Okay crack on. You can still get the undercut. Checo’s first timed lap was a 25.2.			Marcos Padros	Gap to Perez in front, 4.4.	Adami	Copy.
							Adami	Checo is in front of Charles. Head down.
							Sainz	Who?
							Adami	Checo is in front of Charles with inters. 25.2 lap time.

Red Bull brought Verstappen in on the same lap as Leclerc. On his second lap out of the pits the world champion gained over three seconds on Leclerc, who caught the lapped Alexander Albon. The Williams driver reasoned that letting Leclerc past would cost both of them more time than him staying ahead, and didn’t give the place up until he skidded off the track at Sainte Devote.

Lap	VER	Message	PER	Message	LEC	Message	SAI	Message
19	Lambiase	Okay looks like Ferrari with Sainz may wish to extend to slicks. His last lap was a 31.7. So Checo has got effective track position on Leclerc.	Bird	Gap to Leclerc behind four seconds, Sainz at six in front.	Marcos Padros	Gap to Perez it in front 3.5, you’re doing a good job.	Adami	Perez is nine seconds behind, nine seconds.
			Bird	Sainz’s last lap 31.7. Just chip away.	Marcos Padros	Next car in front is Albon with blue flags, solid blues.	Adami	Let me know what you for slicks.
			Bird	Think about torque three, we see low-speed understeer.	Leclerc	Oh, Alex.	Sainz	It’s going to be a few laps but not a lot.
							Adami	Okay understood. And Mick is on slicks already, for reference, we are monitoring.
							Adami	Okay. Which compound?
20	Lambiase	Mode nine, strat five, mode nine, strat five please Max.	Bird	Okay into some management now. We don’t want to overcook these inters.	Leclerc	Oh come on! What the fuck?	Adami	He’s on hard.
	Lambiase	So info Sainz turn 16.	Bird	So think about the wet line on the straights, save the grip for when we need it.	Leclerc	Oh! Fucking hell!	Sainz	I would go with him.
	Lambiase	Okay don’t destroy the tyres too quickly, Max. Checo last lap is a 28.7. And I’ll have an update on conditions…	Bird	Sainz’s last lap 31.6.	Marcos Padros	You are faster than Perez. You are doing a good job.	Adami	Okay copy. Perez is 5.5 behind.
			Bird	Okay Checo how are conditions inter versus slick?			Sainz	Verstappen then? [Unclear] protect me?
			Perez	Yeah they’re improving and I’m losing a bit the inter.			Adami	Repeat, sorry, didn’t get?
			Perez	Yeah wet line were you can.			Sainz	Where is Verstappen?
							Adami	Verstappen is in front of us.
							Adami	And Mick on hard is fast, 27.5. And box, box for hard. Box for hard.

Sainz had taken the lead of the race on his full wet weather tyres but was being caught quickly by the intermediate-shod trio of Perez, Leclerc and Verstappen. However other drivers had already switched to slicks and Ferrari had taken note of their lap times.

Sainz made it clear he didn’t want to switch to intermediates

They brought Sainz in for a set of slicks, making him the only one of the leading quartet to skip the intermediates. It was a well-timed stop from the lead, and it should have put him on course to win the race.

But infuriatingly for Ferrari their other driver now lost time behind the other lapped Williams, which belonged to Nicholas Latifi. Sainz was less agitated on the radio than Leclerc was about Albon, but the loss of time as well as heat in his slick tyres cost him badly.

Leclerc had a new reason to get upset. Ferrari called him in for his switch to slicks on the same lap, which would have been a well-timed move, except that he followed his team mate in and lost around three seconds waiting for the crew to switch between cars. He exploded with fury.

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Lap	VER	Message	PER	Message	LEC	Message	SAI	Message
21	Verstappen	And me?	Perez	Has Carlos gone to the pit?	Marcos Padros	And box now, box. Box now box for hard.	Sainz	Copy.
	Lambiase	24.8.	Bird	Both Ferraris have pitted. Onto slicks.	Marcos Padros	Stay out, stay out, stay out!	Adami	Tyre switch six, tyre switch six.
	Verstappen	Yeah it’s getting drier. Just keep an eye on these slick guys.	Bird	Push on, push on.	Leclerc	Fuck! Fuck! Why? What are you doing?	Adami	Pit confirmed.
	Lambiase	Yep. Look after the inter, Max.	Bird	Both Ferraris are on hard tyres. Take it all out of this tyre.	Marcos Padros	Multi-function tyre position five. Multi-function tyre position five.	Adami	K2 off.
	Verstappen	I think it will be dry out soon enough.	Bird	All out, Checo.	Marcos Padros	Tight with Norris. Tight with Norris. Brake balance minus two, suggestion.	Adami	Lap mode PW, watch the yellow, be careful pit exit.
	Lambiase	Yeah. Both Ferraris have pitted for hard tyres. Push now, Max, push.	Bird	Box, Checo, box.	Marcos Padros	Race is long, you are doing a good job. Continue like this, good job.	Adami	All have blue flags in front. Blue flags.
							Sainz	Get this guy out of the way.
							Adami	Copy.

Now Red Bull demonstrated to Ferrari how to perform ‘stacked’ consecutive pit stops for both drivers on the same lap. Verstappen followed Perez in, but lost around a second less than Leclerc, and jumped ahead of him. That completed the Ferrari driver’s misery. Having led the race, he’d fallen to last out of the leading quartet.

Lap	VER	Message	PER	Message	LEC	Message	SAI	Message
22	Lambiase	Box and pit confirm, Max, box, pit confirm.	Bird	Tyre five. Tyre five. Okay it’s going to be close. This could be the race lead.	Leclerc	Yeah, copy.	Adami	Okay. All clear in front. Next car in front is six seconds, Mick.
	Lambiase	Strat eight. Tyre eight. Max. Strat eight. Tyre eight.	Bird	Sainz just coming to turn one. Let’s go, let’s get these working. A lot of backmarkers in front.	Marcos Padros	And we need you to push this out-lap.	Adami	And leave K2 on. Leave K2 on. Perez is pitting.
	Lambiase	Could be rated Leclerc. Racing Leclerc.			Marcos Padros	Perez just pitted for hard, he is out and Verstappen also pitted for hard. We need you to push.	Adami	Perez getting out from the pits. Push. And Verstappen as well.
	Lambiase	You are ahead of Leclerc.			Marcos Padros	Car in front is Verstappen.	Sainz	Who are they?
	Lambiase	So reset brake bias.					Adami	Perez in front. Verstappen behind.
							Adami	Okay check I touched the wall a bit.
							Adami	Copy, checking.

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Meanwhile Sainz’s delay behind Latifi played into Perez’s hands. His race engineer Hugh Bird advised him he would be racing for the lead when he rejoined the track, and he duly took it.

It was a bitter run of a mistakes and misfortunes for Ferrari, who had lost one or more positions for their cars with every pit stop they made.

“We had to go out and win it but we also capitalised on the mistakes that were made,” said Horner. “I think we just reacted very well to the to the conditions and got the crossovers right, the double pit stop, et cetera, et cetera. It worked very well for us.”

Lap	VER	Message	PER	Message	LEC	Message	SAI	Message
23	Lambiase	Strat five for when you can, Max, strat five.	Perez	Get them out of the way.	Marcos Padros	In front of Verstappen there’s Schumacher for blue flags.	Adami	Pressures are okay.
			Bird	Yeah. We’re on it.			Adami	Can use K1.
			Bird	Tyre temps coming in.			Sainz	That blue flag cost me.
							Adami	Yeah, we saw that.
							Adami	K1 available.
							Adami	Verstappen two behind.
							Sainz	Ahh!
							Adami	Yep, stay cool.
24	Lambiase	So ahead of Sainz is Zhou. Blue flags for Zhou ahead of Sainz.	Bird	Zhou’s getting blues.	Marcos Padros	You’re doing a good job. In front we have Verstappen. In front of Verstappen there’s Sainz. In front of Sainz there’s Zhou with blue flags.	Adami	Completed lap 23, 23 laps.
25			Bird	Okay Checo that’s 25 laps complete, 52 to go.	Leclerc	We are past.	Adami	Verstappen 0.7 behind, 0.7, you can use K1 if you need.
			Bird	Sainz’s lap 22.6.	Leclerc	Copy understood.	Adami	Verstappen 0.8 behind, 0.8. 0.9.
			Bird	Strat four, Tsunoda’s getting blues.			Adami	Verstappen lap time 22.9.
							Adami	And when you can lap mode race, when you can.
26	Verstappen	I smell something burning but I don’t know from which car.	Bird	Okay Stroll’s getting blues as well.	Marcos Padros	Stroll and Tsunoda with blue flags in front.	Adami	Verstappen 1.1 behind.
	Lambiase	Understood.	Bird	Virtual Safety Car deployed.	Marcos Padros	Virtual Safety Car deployed. There’s a crash at turn 13.	Adami	Big shunt turn 15.
	Lambiase	Tsunoda ahead.					Adami	Charge button on. And Virtual for now.
	Lambiase	VSC deployed Max, VSC deployed. Target plus one. Target plus one.

Red Bull came close to inflicting total humiliation on Ferrari, as Verstappen was not far off jumping ahead of Sainz for second place. Nonetheless Perez had successfully taken positions from both Ferrari drivers, and was on his way to victory.

Red Bull’s strategic masterclass almost earned them a one-two

“I thought we might be able to get one of them, I didn’t think we were able to get both of them,” Horner admitted. “Obviously we capitalised from their mistake. At one point it looked like we were going to get both of them passed Sainz, with Max as well. So it was pretty close.”

Horner said Red Bull’s result vindicated their attacking approach to the race. “I’ve always prided ourselves on us being an attacking race team,” he said. “We’ve always focussed on trying to do the basics well, whether that’s strategy, whether it’s pit stops, thinking on your feet.

“This was all about thinking on your feet and reacting to the situation as it happens around you. And I think that the whole team responded brilliantly well and the drivers, of course, had to deliver their part.”

2022 Monaco Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine

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30 comments on “Transcript: How Red Bull seized a win that ‘Ferrari looked like they had in the bag’”

MG1982 (@mg1982)
2nd June 2022, 8:30
So, actually RBR/PER strategy wasn’t really such a masterful move, but more of a gamble/lucky one. To a certain extent it makes sense too, they just seemed to be stuck in 3rd and 4th, the most realistic chance to stop Ferrari from a 1-2 was to not mirror their strategy. But, without NOR pitting in PER’s outlap, he would have lost P3 to VER. So, I wouldn’t call RBR’s strategy department much smarter (than Ferrari’s), but more like a bunch of lucky gamblers. Ferrari definately is more on the bad luck side (when they decide to gamble).
1. Albert
  2nd June 2022, 10:11
  So, actually RBR/PER strategy wasn’t really such a masterful move, but more of a gamble/lucky one.
  Essentially all strategies are.
2. tielemst
  2nd June 2022, 11:04
  With the exception of reacting fast when Lewis pitted and making use of the gap that would occur when Lando would pit, yes. Albon and Latifi contributed more to this win then clever strategy.
  1. DaveW (@dmw)
    2nd June 2022, 14:00
    But they didn’t know Norris would pit just as he was caught. Since he wasn’t lapped that would have been a major problem.
    1. tielemst
      2nd June 2022, 14:45
      True, but chances were he was going to pit soon. Of course it played out beautifully, but the pit stop by Norris was probably taken into account in the strategy call. The Albon hold-up was pure luck.
      1. MG1982 (@mg1982)
        2nd June 2022, 18:31
        Yes, probably RBR thought that NOR might pit too after HAM, but we can say they got it wrong initially since NOR pitted 1 lap later than PER, so it was a ”bad call” for 1 lap. They were very lucky NOR pitted 1 lap later, PER did not lost time behind NOR because there was some gap between them. Had NOR decided to stay 1 more lap, SAI would have remained ahead for sure, probably LEC too. Plus, McLaren/NOR might have thought to gamble too since PER was behind them and the track drying, and adopt SAI’s strategy to stay some more laps and then go directly to Slicks and try to beat PER.
3. David
  2nd June 2022, 20:50
  Red Bull were awake to the benefit of going to the inter early – Ferrari were caught napping. Leclerc should have committed to the inter a lot earlier when it was clear it was the tyre to be on. Stacking when the gap was too small was another blunder by the red team.
  Note how Sainz overruled the pit wall (Vettel style) and very nearly stole the lead as a result – just bad luck/behaviour involving lapped traffic stopped him from having his best shot yet at a maiden win.
  The Ferrari strategy team remains weak.
trib4udi (@trib4udi)
2nd June 2022, 8:38
Ferrari made the mistake already after lap1. It was quite clear that with a drying track you want Leclerc to be able to make a safe pitstop.
Sainz should have lowered the pace so that Lec would be 20+ sec ahead.
Also, sainz holding up the rest would have meant that Anyone who would pit on intermediates first , would end up in traffic.
In the race, Perez could pit and put in quick laps in free air.
1. Mashiat (@mashiat)
  2nd June 2022, 9:05
  Firstly, why would Sainz agree to basically sacrifice his own race for his teammate, secondly, if you drive off the pace on wets, your tyres will have no temperature and you’d basically be guaranteeing yourself a crash.
2. George.be
  2nd June 2022, 9:14
  Exactly, Sainz as the teammate should have done an Alonso on the RedBulls, and created a pit window for Leclerc, getting Leclerc on inters as fast as possible. Ferrari needed Leclerc to be first on inters, with preferably only one RB and Sainz in front. RB would have split their strategies too if the gap to the rest of the field was acceptable. If not, the tire advantage of Leclerc might have given him a shot at an overtake on the Redbulls when their full wets were too bad to keep them on the dry line.
3. MG1982 (@mg1982)
  2nd June 2022, 9:55
  Kinda agree with the ”SAI part”. He’s the only driver from top 4 without a PP or a win, while each one the other 3 have at least 1 PP and 1 win. He has no real chance at the WDC, case closed. The next best thing for him now is at least to prove he’s a good no.2 and really bring something positive for the team by offering full support to LEC. Thing is, as Binotto said, Ferrari underestimated the power of the undercut via Inters and pretty sure they didn’t think LEC’s lead/position is so fragile given that SAI was 2nd, otherwise more than sure would have thought of something to prevent LEC’s disaster.
  1. Cobray (@)
    3rd June 2022, 2:12
    @mg1982 Sainz is just not at the level of the other three. Unbelievably he also has by far the best reliability out of all of them with only a faulty wheel at the start in Australia that messed up his gear sync, which made him lose places at the start.
    Ferrari had the stroke of genius to renew his contract and he still seems to haven’t been given the talk of his duties from now on befitting a driver at his WC points position. Meaning helping his teammate like a proper number 2.
4. Jeanrien (@jeanrien)
  2nd June 2022, 11:59
  You can even push it one step further, if Lec is driving slow enough from the start to make a big train he can almost force the whole field into switching to wet as nobody would have a gap for inter. As soon as conditions allow for dry, he can push and stretch the field and as long as he rejoined as first with slick, race is won.
  Monaco can offer strange opportunities and almost strange we don’t see more of them in a sense. Maybe because drivers and team are so used to push somehow (not that I wish for the above scenario).
  We should almost have a fantasy strategy contest when it comes to Monaco.
  1. David BR (@david-br)
    2nd June 2022, 17:16
    @jeanrien We kind of saw that a few Monacos back when everyone spent virtually the entire ‘race’ in a slow train preserving tyres.
    1. Esploratore (@esploratore1)
      3rd June 2022, 5:31
      Think that might’ve been 2018, with the leader ricciardo having a PU issue that limited his straight line speed for all the race.
5. Grapmg
  2nd June 2022, 17:06
  I think Lec already had a gap of 5s to Sainz and if Sainz had covered the strategy of Perez he could have played a role in defending the gap to the RBs and give LEC a pitstop window. But he made the choice tob stay out. Partly agree with you that he could have helped LEC and the team a bit more
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
2nd June 2022, 8:45
Having a look. Think about hand brake for turn 15, hand brake for turn 15.
Hand brake? what’s that?
1. George.be
  2nd June 2022, 9:17
  Probably a torque setting on the energy recovery system, increasing the oversteer
2. DaveW (@dmw)
  2nd June 2022, 13:08
  I was also envisioning some smoky drifting action.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
2nd June 2022, 9:02
Ferrari did nail the strategy with Carlos. Without Latifi’s intervention, they’d have won it just like Lewis had in 2016.
But for Leclerc, they never commited to either strategy. They were too late with the switch to inters to make it work, with a driver that had a lot of time to spare to switch directly to drys and still come out ahead of everyone. Probably a bit of fault in Charles not commiting to that like Carlos did, but ultimately it’s never their full responsability as you don’t get the big picture while on the car.
Carlos might be frustrated he didn’t get the win, but at least he didn’t lose the race completely like Leclerc.
1. George.be
  2nd June 2022, 9:21
  I don’t agree: The lap time delta between the full wets and the inters was too big: Chance on an overcut was way too big
hamiledon
2nd June 2022, 9:42
Besides all the wrong pit calls for Leclerc, both williams drivers changed the race order. Especially Albon is still stamped goods of RBR. Last year it was FIA and stewarts, this year additionally some other trash F1 teams and their drivers are in help for RBR.
1. Albert
  2nd June 2022, 10:46
  What surprises me is that Ferrari haven’t lodged a complain (?!). It was bizarre how strongly they were slowed down by the backmarkers.
  1. DaveW (@dmw)
    2nd June 2022, 13:13
    Oh they complained, even pointing out the fine from practice. But I’m not sure whether is a cause or a purpose to making an official complaint against Williams here.
grapmg
2nd June 2022, 11:21
I guess the best strategic call was from Sainz maybe should have pitted one lap earlier and he would have nailed it. LEC had a gap to VER of 10s before the pitstops (lap 17) he lost 3s due to Albon (lap20) and 1s on a slower pitstop but the other 6s is partly because his own pace compared to Max. He was slower on the inters 3s (lap 18 and 19) and lost the remaining 3s due the overcut from Max on inters (lap 21) .
DaveW (@dmw)
2nd June 2022, 13:11
The amount and depth of communication between Perez and Bird is much more than the others. I don’t think it was the key to victory per se , in terms of what they actually discussed, but the constant connection I feel made understanding opportunities and seizing them more likely. RBR was lucky in a couple key points (Ferrari pit stacking issues, Williams blocking Ferrari) but you make your own luck sometimes as they say by being prepared.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
2nd June 2022, 13:25
How did the Red Bull drivers know that they were allowed to touch the line but Ferrari and I assume everyone else didn’t?
1. Albert
  2nd June 2022, 16:20
  Superior Skillz.
  In all seriousness, it’s not like they did on purpose, they just got lucky it wasn’t worst.
  1. Albert
    2nd June 2022, 16:20
    *worse.
  2. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    2nd June 2022, 23:24
    Well, the real question was whether it was illegal. How did Red Bull know it’s legal and others didn’t?