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Ferrari: No change needed despite F1 error as Charles Leclerc faces mammoth Max Verstappen task


Ferrari has cost Charles Leclerc a huge number of points in the championship through strategic mishaps but team boss Mattia Binotto says no changes will be made; The season resumes with the Belgian GP on August 28, live on Sky Sports F1

Last Updated: 11/08/22 5:15 pm


Mattia Binotto has rejected suggestions that change is needed at Ferrari despite a string of flaws that have left Charles Leclerc with an epic task against Max Verstappen in the championship.

Leclerc is currently 80 points behind Verstappen in the standings and while he has made his own mistakes, Ferrari has cost Monegasque about a century away through unreliable and strategic mistakes.

The Hungarian GP was the latest of them all, as Leclerc fell from the race lead back to sixth, with Verstappen failing to win from 10th on the grid.

That led to calls for Ferrari’s team change – many of which called for team leader Binotto – although the Italian insisted there was no reason to panic.

Mattia Binotto was quick to defend Ferrari's strategy at the Hungarian GP and was unhappy with the car

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Mattia Binotto was quick to defend Ferrari’s strategy at the Hungarian GP and was unhappy with the car

Mattia Binotto was quick to defend Ferrari’s strategy at the Hungarian GP and was unhappy with the car

“It’s not a matter of luck, and there’s nothing to change,” Binotto said in Budapest.

“It’s always been a matter of constantly learning and building, building experience, building skills.

“There’s definitely something that you need to look at and understand why. But if I look back at the balance of the first half of the season, there’s no reason for us to change.”

Binotto has also backed Leclerc to react after the summer break, with the season continuing with the Belgian GP on August 26-28. Each session is streamed live and exclusively on Sky Sports F1.

Charles Leclerc believes Ferrari's decision to put him on hard tires was a disaster

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Charles Leclerc believes Ferrari’s decision to put him on hard tires was a disaster

Charles Leclerc believes Ferrari’s decision to put him on hard tires was a disaster

How many points have Ferrari lost to Leclerc this season?

Throwing away winning positions has been the story of Ferrari’s season and there is a very good argument that they cost him more than a century to Verstappen through a lack of trust and strategy.

Spanish GP: Leclerc relaxed from the lead before Ferrari suffered an engine failure.
Loss: -25. Leclerc looked certain to win this race, but ended up with nothing.

Monaco GP: Leclerc was leading the team in one-two Ferraris before the team reacted too late to changing weather conditions, and Sergio Perez knocked him down. Leclerc will then have a slow two-stack pit-stop behind Carlos Sainz, and finish fourth.
Loss: -13. If not overtaken by Red Bull’s strategy, a race victory is entirely possible for Ferrari.

Azerbaijan GP: Leclerc took the lead, again from the pole, before his engine blew up in lap 20.
Lost points: -25. Leclerc should have used an effective one-stop strategy but he had enough pace to win.

Anthony Davidson is at SkyPad to analyze Leclerc's strategic woes that led to his completion of P6 at the Hungarian Grand Prix

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Anthony Davidson is at SkyPad to analyze Leclerc’s strategic woes that led to his completion of P6 at the Hungarian Grand Prix

Anthony Davidson is at SkyPad to analyze Leclerc’s strategic woes that led to his completion of P6 at the Hungarian Grand Prix

Canadian GP: Leclerc received an engine penalty for previous defeats and started behind the net, though he still finished in 5th place overall.
Lost points: -15. Verstappen will win, but only against Sainz. Since Leclerc has had the edge over Sainz all season, it’s not foolish to assume that Leclerc can win this race without an engine penalty.

British GP: Once again, Leclerc took the lead ahead of the Safety Car, which resulted in the car stopping up and down the field to get new tyres. But Ferrari – while conceding Sainz for faster acceleration – kept Leclerc sitting on the old hard tire 14 laps, leaving him defenseless against those behind.
Lost points: -13. Leclerc finished fourth but if stopped to advance, he would have definitely won. Ferrari said it was nervous about the others staying and taking the lead, but Leclerc would have the pace to get through.

Hungarian GP: Ferrari certainly let Leclerc out of his vehicle, as he wanted, before transferring him to the tank at the end, when he could have chased Verstappen. Winning? Sure.
Loss: -17.

POINTS LOST, TOTAL: 108.

Since Verstappen has won all but two of the above races (Monaco and Silverstone) and has only two DNFs to his name, Leclerc can and should probably lead this championship.

Massa: Leclerc must be patient

Felipe Massa says Leclerc must be patient with the team and resist the urge to publicly voice his frustrations

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Felipe Massa says Leclerc must be patient with the team and resist the urge to publicly voice his frustrations

Felipe Massa says Leclerc must be patient with the team and resist the urge to publicly voice his frustrations

Former Ferrari driver Felipe Massa on any Monday

“Certainly Charles is not happy at all, but he needs to be patient.

“If he starts fighting now, it won’t help the team, but also Charles. We can’t forget that in France he made a mistake, he gave away a very good ability. To win the race and score the right number of points.

“You need to be patient, even if you are not satisfied with mistakes and decisions, you need to fight professionally, not to show it. If you do that, you are not helping either side, even Ferrari even made more mistakes. This year.”

Why Binotto had to turn the tide ‘quickly’

“I know him very well, I’ve been racing for him already, we’ve worked together for a very long time.

“He was an engine engineer, then he became the boss. He’s a very good engineer, very professional, he understands a lot of the technical side.

“He’s also a nice guy, I like him as a human being. But, at the end of the day, you understand that the results won’t come as they wanted. We need to say that he’s part of the world. it, they need a little more calm.

“Many early-season mistakes are still happening and this is something that cannot continue. He needs to turn things around quickly, or else he will pay the price.”





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