Ferrari’s habit of making strategy errors has become as consistent as Max Verstappen winning races. After the Italian team committed yet another mistake at the recently concluded Spanish Grand Prix, exasperated fans started begging Charles Leclerc to leave Ferrari.
Ferrari’s strategic blunders have been a huge topic of discussion over the last two years and it was one of the main reasons why Mattia Binotto was sacked. However, it seems as though the team hasn’t learned anything from their mistakes, leaving Leclerc to suffer again.
Admittedly, as seen in the Barcelona race, the Maranello-based team failed to comply with Leclerc. The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is a complex track, which can have many tyre strategies. Out of all those choices, Ferrari, as expected, made the wrong one.
In Lap 50, the Monegasque’s race engineer Xavier Marcos Padros asked the driver to box, saying they were going to put him on hards. Hearing this on the radio, Leclerc seemed hesitant to comply, as he wanted to opt for a different strategy.
“No no, let’s go for softs man,” replied the Ferrari driver. Xavi, despite hearing what Leclerc said, asked the 25-year-old to come in for his stop, only to inform him that they will be putting hards on his SF-23.
Angry Tifosi reacted to the Ferrari strategy
As soon as the pit stop got over, the Tifosi took over the internet with their reactions. From asking the Monegasque to switch the team, to blaming the race engineer for the mishap, the fans were absolutely furious.
The hard-compound tyres did not Leclerc get into the points position. After Yuki Tsunoda was given a five-second time penalty for forcing another driver off the track, there was a chance for a top 10 finish, but for that, he had to overtake Pierre Gasly.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to do so on the harder tyres. Hence, Leclerc finished the race in P11. Given below are some of the reactions taken from Twitter:
Samuel wants Leclerc to move to Red Bull, the team known for its fierce strategy.
Vin stated that Leclerc could have won World Championship last year if Ferrari wouldn’t have messed up.
Hank believes Leclerc needs to look elsewhere if he has a bit of sense left in him.
A difficult and disappointing day for Charles Leclerc
Following the conclusion of the race, the former Sauber driver opened up on what was yet another disappointing day in the office. As per the official Twitter handle of Scuderia Ferrari, the Spanish GP was difficult and disappointing for him.
“The first stint on the hard went really bad and we struggled a lot with the front tires. The second stint on the hard was okay, felt a little bit better, but for now, we have a lot of inconsistencies,” added the 25-year-old driver.
As things stand, Charles Leclerc is P7 in the driver’s standings with 42 points. His teammate Carlos Sainz, who finished 5th on Sunday, is in P6 with 58 points.
