Ferrari stand out as one of the most iconic and decorated teams in the entire history of Formula 1. However, their recent 17-year-long title drought has been littered with instances where they’ve been called out for their delayed pit stops or miscalculated strategies.
In the past, the likes of Carlos Sainz and Sebastian Vettel have faced the brunt of this, while Charles Leclerc is still vulnerable to such mistakes. Unlike Leclerc, though, Vettel and Sainz were seen taking matters into their own hands when the pit wall made a seemingly incorrect call or delayed making the call to ruin their strategy.
The four-time world champion, in particular, was quite frustrated with Ferrari’s uncertainty regarding the tire strategy. At the 2020 Spanish GP, Vettel was trying to manage his tires while the team wasn’t sure about pitting for a second time. After a sequence of radio calls, the German lashed out at his engineer when he was asked if he could finish the race on the same tires to maximize their result.
While Vettel did score points that afternoon, it wasn’t a good look for the Scuderia. But a team like Ferrari, with endless resources at their disposal, shouldn’t be facing such problems. When this conundrum was placed before former F1 strategist, Bernie Collins on the Red Flags Podcast, the 37-year-old revealed why she felt Ferrari has been lacking on the pit wall.
Referring to the long-legged hierarchy at Ferrari she explained, “When I made a decision [at Aston Martin], very rarely did the management get involved.”
Impressive work from Seb to nurse his tyres home
He finished P7 in Spain and won the vote for Driver of the Day #SpanishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/4q6VoINp7m
— Formula 1 (@F1) August 16, 2020
“There’s this ‘oh I don’t want to put my neck on the line because I don’t want to get fired from Ferrari so, I’m gonna ask the guy above me and see what he thinks and then he’s going to ask the guy above him’. I don’t know because I’m not on that pit wall but that’s the impression I get,” she added.
Naturally, for Collins at a small team like Force India (now Aston Martin) she never faced such red-tapism. Therefore, she could make quick decisions on the pit wall and if things went wrong the team could work together to review it and learn.
Has Frederic Vasseur revolutionized the operational side of things at Ferrari?
The constant mistakes on the strategy side of things were one of the biggest reasons why Mattia Binotto got sacked by Ferrari at the end of the 2022 season. And since 2023, Vasseur has attempted to streamline the race operations of the squad.
In fact, under the stewardship of the Frenchman and new strategy head Ravin Jain, the Maranello-based team has seen a massive overhaul of their strategic team. The results are also apparent on the track as the team scored their highest championship total — 652 points — in the last decade.
Former Ferrari engineer, Rob Smedley credited Vasseur for creating an environment within the team that fostered these changes. At a team like Ferrari where the stakes are high, the Frenchman has instilled a sort of calming presence.
“He is very intelligent, but he is also very disarming, and I think that is a good quality to have in a top manager in a pressure cooker environment like that,” explained Smedley.
