Strategy was the key in the Monaco Grand Prix race, and hitting the right time to enter the pitlane gave Sergio Pérez victory.
And when there is a winner, there are usually losers.
This is the case of Ferrari, which let an almost assured victory escape with its two drivers after taking pole position on Saturday with Charles Leclerc and signing a second place with Carlos Sainz. The pair from Maranello was heading towards a comfortable double, but the circumstances of the test in the Principality turned the situation around.
Although they were right with the Spaniard to take the lead and almost overtake Checo at the moment of putting on the dry tires, they showed their disappointment at not going up to the top, since, as they explained immediately after the race, a lap, the Nicholas Latifi’s Williams, wasted a lot of time.
Days later, after analyzing what happened, the Italian team’s chief strategist, Iñaki Rueda , explained in detail the approach and development of the test in terms of changing tires.
“We expected to have a competitive car on Saturday, and we did,” he said. “We managed to be on the front row with both cars, something we are very proud of, because it is very difficult. So we started to focus our efforts on the race and on the plans we had for the dry test, but the Sunday, and we had to start figuring out how to manage the rain.
“With Carlos [Sainz] we had a very good race. He started second, and after the first round of stops he was the leader, although our initial plan was to try to protect ourselves from Pérez, but we saw that it was not going to work,” said the Spanish engineer.
“At the last second we told Carlos to stay out, and he complied,” continued Rueda. “Also, when the time was right, the track was starting to get faster on dry tyres, and he was the first to ride those sets, which gave him an advantage.”
Although up to this point he had done everything perfectly with Sainz, a lap ended all chances of victory: “Unfortunately, he came out behind Latifi, something that cost him about three seconds. If he hadn’t been blocked, we’re sure he would have won the race.”
Iñaki Rueda not only focused on what happened to his compatriot, but also explained what happened to the other driver of the team, who should have won under normal circumstances for Ferrari.
“With Charles [Leclerc] we made two mistakes,” he said. “The first was covering Perez, as we realized with Carlos we couldn’t defend ourselves by stopping afterwards, but with Charles he had a good distance, and we thought we could do it.”
“At the start of lap 18, Charles had a lead of about ten seconds and we thought that would be enough, because Perez was on the intermediates and we were on the extreme wet tyres,” he revealed. “We looked at the rest and we had real-time information from other cars, and we thought that advantage would be five, four or three seconds, in the worst case.”
“As we approached the stop, we saw that the distance was getting smaller, and when Charles reached the pool area, the last reference we had told us that we would start a second ahead of Pérez,” said the head of strategy for the Maranello set. “What we didn’t expect was that he would go nine seconds a lap quicker, that’s why we lost the race to Charles.
“The second mistake was another one with the distances, as we wanted to stop with both cars at the same time to put on dry tyres,” said Rueda. “On lap 21 we saw that the track was fine for the slick wheels, and while we were trying to keep the lead from Carlos, we tried to undercut Perez with Charles to end up with a one-two finish.”
That was when the key moment arrived and that was talked about so much due to the Monegasque driver’s visible anger on the radio : “At the rate they arrived at the pitlane, the distance was reduced, and it was about five seconds. The time for a double stop comfortable is six seconds, although five and a half may be enough.
“As they got closer, the gap got smaller and smaller, and at the pit lane they were only three and a half seconds apart,” he added. “We made a last minute call to Charles to stay out but it was too late as he was already in the pitlane.
“In that double stop, Charles lost two seconds, which were crucial. This is what allowed Verstappen to take the lead one lap later,” assured Iñaki Rueda in the video posted by the team on Linkedin .
“We are leaving Monaco with a bittersweet taste in our mouths, with some good things and some bad things, but we are going back to the factory to analyze what we did well and what we failed to do. We will update our procedures and we will surely come out of this experience stronger”, sentenced the head of strategy of the most successful team in the history of Formula 1.
