Ferrari dismiss strategy "misjudgment" after Carlos Sainz over-rule

Ferrari

Ferrari dismiss strategy "misjudgment" after Sainz over-rule

Sainz made the correct call in Hungarian GP

Ian Parkes

Thursday 5 August 2021 15:04

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has defended his strategists against accusations of misjudgments following Carlos Sainz's over-rule during the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Told to "box" ahead of his first pit stop, Sainz issued a defiant "No!", telling his team to exercise "patience" as he had "a lot of pace".

Sainz had his way as soon after he was then instructed: "Okay, now push", to which he replied 'Vamos!", allowing him to overcut AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda and Williams' Nicholas Latifi.

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It was reminiscent of Sebastian Vettel's days at Ferrari when he occasionally countered the information and orders from the pit wall.

Asked whether he was concerned his strategists were making too many misjudgments, Binotto said: "These are not misjudgments. They are good conclusions we are reaching together.

"It's our way of approaching, having an open discussion on the radio, making sure that in certain conditions we are reaching the right conclusions.

"This year we have had good strategies that have been applied, thanks not only to the strategists but thanks to the competition of the drivers who are the ones driving the car and knowing exactly the conditions around the track.

"So I don't think it's a misjudgment. The final call is made by the strategists. He [Sainz] suggested his impression, we reviewed our evaluations, and we concluded that was the right choice.

"I'm happy with the way this communication is working and that's showing how the team is properly working on that."

Part of the learning process for Sainz

Asked for his impression as to what unfolded, Sainz said: "It's a natural progression of my learning process and understanding with the team.

"I was just very keen on transmitting to them that by doing an extra lap I was going to be very quick.

"By taking that extra lap I think we made the right call, the team agreed with me, and in the end, we overcut two guys with very good pace.

"I'm happy that we keep learning together, and this is the kind of thing with some more races with the team, we're going to become stronger and it will be easier to perform at a higher level as we get to know each other better."