Carlos Sainz Jnr, Ferrari, Hungaroring, 2021

No concern over Ferrari drivers querying strategy calls mid-race – Binotto

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In the round-up: Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto isn’t concerned by disagreements between their drivers and strategists during races.

In brief

Ferrari happy with strategy procedure

After Carlos Sainz Jnr queried one of Ferrari’s strategy calls during the Hungarian Grand Prix, Binotto said he is happy for the team’s drivers to raise doubts over their tactics mid-race.

“I think these are not misjudgements, these are good conclusions that we are reaching together,” he said. “So it’s our way of approaching having an open discussion on the radio and making sure that in certain conditions we are reaching the right conclusion.

“Overall I think this year we have always good strategies which have been applied. And that’s not only thanks to the strategists but thanks to the contribution of the drivers which are the ones driving the car and knowing perfectly the conditions around the track.

“So I don’t think it’s a misjudgement because the final call has been done by the strategists. The driver has suggested what was his impression being there, we reviewed our simulation or our evaluations and we concluded that was the right choice. So overall I’m happy with the way that this communication is working.”

Bourdais fumes after being hit by Ericsson

Sebastien Bourdais was unimpressed with Marcus Ericsson after being taken out of a race for the third time this year. Ericsson launched off the back of Bourdais’ car when the pair made contact at the first restart in yesterday’s race.

“There was a massive acceleration, everybody trying to pack up,” Bourdais explained. “I don’t know why, it seems like always acceleration leading to starts and restarts. Which, obviously, if you just get your eyes off or if you’re not focused or something you can get caught out real easy.

“That’s exactly what happened again. Everybody was trying to catch up, we caught the tail of the pack and then all of a sudden it goes like fist, second gear speed and Marcus just flew right over our car. It stopped, the cars were stopped in front of me.”

Told Ericsson complained he had slowed down, Bourdais said: “I won’t go even there because I don’t want to be a douche but if that’s his answer then he needs to fricking get a real good, hard look at it.”

Ericsson was given a stop-go penalty for the collision. He is still running in the race, which was approaching half-distance as the round-up was published.

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Comment of the day

Adrian Newey’s claim Red Bull’s flexing rear wing brought no performance benefit doesn’t wash with Philip:

How little respect does Newey have for us that he can claim there wasn’t benefit to a flexible wing?

I don’t think you need to be a genius aerodynamicist to call nonsense on that one.
Philip (@philipgb)

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On this day in motorsport

  • 35 years ago today Ayrton Senna claimed pole position for the first event world championship Hungarian Grand Prix at the recently-completed Hungaroring

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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5 comments on “No concern over Ferrari drivers querying strategy calls mid-race – Binotto”

  1. Even in journalism you can crash and get airborne but clean it all up during a red flag and end up victorious;)

    1. If this isn’t comment of the day, it should be :D

  2. It says a lot about the strategy department at Ferrari when even their drivers think their calls are BS.

    Also pleasant to read RaceFans with just motorsport related stuff. Haven’t been a political or woke story for a while now. Long may it continue.

    1. I agree. While I applaud drivers that use their platform to bring about change, F1 is a sport and I follow it as a form of escapism. To read all about society’s dramas through Lewis Hamilton’s lens just gets tiring and seems to stir up the same arguments on here.

  3. Cotd, maybe they found out banning the flexi wings was a good thing, moveable aero can be tricky. Obviously the new wing is heavier. In the end of the day it changed nothing if anything RB has shown more since the ban.

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