The weekend of the 2022 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix was a roller coaster of emotions for the Ferrari team, as they went from losing pole position and the sprint race to dreaming of a one-two finish to later lamenting the fire of Carlos Sainz’s car while they watched Charles Leclerc win.
The Monegasque added the fourth victory for the Italian team, the third in his personal account so far this season, with which he has been able to cut points from his main rival for the world title, Max Verstappen, who is 38 units away . In order to achieve that success, the Maranello garage needed to give their best, and they were needed after seeing Red Bull win six in a row until the British Grand Prix, where the Madrid native cut the Austrian streak.
However, the key to seeing the car in red at the top of the podium was the strategy, which the group’s boss in this area, Iñaki Rueda , explained to us through a video: “We came back from Austria with another victory, the fourth for Ferrari this season. It’s been a great weekend for Charles [Leclerc] and a devastating one for Carlos [Sainz].”
“We had the sprint race on Saturday, where we started in second and third position, and managed to finish in the same positions, which gave us good starting places for the main test,” said the Spanish engineer.
Although it was the main race that those from Maranello focused on, knowing that this was the day in which the most points were distributed and that there was a differentiating factor : “On Sunday, we knew that one of the biggest problems would be the management of the tyres. The soft compounds were too soft for the race, and that left us one race on the hard and medium, so we thought we’d do two to three stops.”
“Our main objective for Sunday was to destabilize Verstappen,” Rueda explained. “We were second and third, and we wanted to put pressure on him to make a stop early, which was less than optimal in a two-stop race.”
Although they failed to pass the defending world champion at the start, they were in his slipstream until they achieved what they had proposed: “Charles put enough pressure to overtake Verstappen, and Carlos was doing the same until he almost did. This persuasion provoked to stop earlier, on lap 13, which was early to be ideal, and with that we met our first objective”.
“With Verstappen in a strategy that was not the perfect one, we had to focus on ourselves, go longer to give Charles and Carlos the opportunity to overcome him,” said Ferrari’s chief strategy officer.
In that first stint , the victory of Charles Leclerc was simmering, without neglecting the driver who was behind, Carlos Sainz: “We were able to stop 13 laps later with Leclerc, and when we left the pitlane we were one second faster than Verstappen, and that allowed him to catch him to overtake him. With Sainz we did a similar strategy, lengthening the stop by one lap, and he had a similar pace of a second faster. He caught Verstappen on lap 36, but that’s when he stopped again.”
However, it was not until the last part of the race that everything was decided, repeating history: “In the last stint, we were the same again, as Verstappen had stopped, we were 12 more laps out than him, and that allowed us to recover again at the rate of one second per lap”.
“We had 20 laps to go and we had both cars on track, and we were sure we would catch up with Verstappen with both drivers to do a one-two finish. Unfortunately, Carlos suffered an engine problem when he was going to overtake him, and that meant that the Virtual Safety Car will be deployed”.
Sainz’s retirement, despite being a blow to Ferrari’s aspirations in the constructors’ championship, they had to be quick to make a vital bet: “We had to make a choice with Charles at that time, stay out with the tough or put on a media game?”
“The fact that Verstappen had used hard tires led us to put the medium ones, because we were convinced that we would do the same,” he explained. “Our pit crew made five very good pit stops this weekend, and the last one was no exception, with another stop under three seconds.”
As if this were not enough, the victory for Charles Leclerc was even more suffered than it should have been, because a mishap with his car threatened the first position and his debut as winner starting beyond pole position.
“With just 12 laps to go, we had a bit of a problem with the accelerator pedal. That raised everyone’s heart rate on the pit wall, and I’m sure the fans who were at home watching the race too.” Wheel said.
“Charles managed to take the car to the last lap and was able to give us an incredible win,” he added. “There are two more races left before the summer break, and we are highly motivated to get the best results possible at those events.”
