"Embarrassing" Ferrari urged to make personnel changes after latest gaffe

Ewan Gale
Monday 1 August 2022 11:10

Former F1 driver-turned-pundit Johnny Herbert has labelled Ferrari's latest strategic failure as "embarrassing".

Charles Leclerc had been in the lead of the Hungarian Grand Prix after overhauling George Russell's advantage before pulling away from the Mercedes by five seconds.

But with 30 laps to go, Ferrari felt the need to cover off a pit stop from Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who had pitted to switch to a set of mediums early and was attempting to undercut the top three.

In doing so, Leclerc was forced to take on a set of hard tyres as he had used the medium compound in the first two stints.

That rubber, however, did not perform in the cold conditions and the Monégasque slid backwards before making a third stop for a set of softs and finishing a wretched sixth.

With the latest blunder leaving Leclerc 80 points behind Verstappen in the standings, three-time race winner Herbert told Sky Sports F1: "It is one of these situations where we all know you have got to get everything right.

"When you have a car that can win races and you are giving away the race wins and maximum points that are coming their way, it is embarrassing."

Put to him that the failures cannot continue if the Scuderia wants to battle Red Bull for championships, Herbert replied: "It can't, no.

"It is a situation we see where the pressure was put on by Red Bull for Ferrari to react wrongly.

"They have to get people that allow them to do what Red Bull does, what Mercedes-Benz does. That is what they have got to do in this break. They have got to sort it out quickly."

Switch to hards perplexes Herbert

Before Leclerc was switched to the hard tyre, both Alpine drivers had struggled on the compound, as well as Kevin Magnussen for Haas.

Puzzled by the decision, Herbert added: "What I don't understand with the hards as well, we could look at the Alpine, and the Alpine was struggling.

"So why they didn't look at that as everybody else who were on the hards as well?

"I don't understand it."