Ferrari explain Leclerc's Mexican strategy alphabet

Sam Hall
Friday 4 November 2022 14:39 - Updated: 14:41

Mattia Binotto has explained what Ferrari was considering at the Mexico City Grand Prix when discussing 'plan C' with Charles Leclerc.

The Scuderia endured a torrid race at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, with Carlos Sainz and Leclerc fifth and sixth, 58 and 68 seconds respectively behind winner Max Verstappen.

Ferrari has been heard on a number of occasions this season offering various strategy options to its drivers, with the decision-making process seemingly more collaborative than at other teams.

“With Charles, at one stage he asked for plan C," said Binotto.

"This was a solution that was simply switching to a two-stop because he knew that the tyres were difficult, but he would have simply pitted into traffic behind seven cars and it would not have been the right stop.

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"The one-stop was the main plan and I think at the end of the day, it was the right plan for the race.”

Asked if a two-stop plan was even an option, Binotto added: “No.

"We saw that the one-stop would have been the fastest race here, so our main plan was on a one-stop race with the soft and medium."

Ferrari lack top speed capacity

Ferrari was unable to match Red Bull or Mercedes in Mexico City, with top speed a problem across the entire weekend.

In order to negate some of its straight-line deficiencies, Ferrari ran FP2 with lower downforce levels, an experiment that ended with Leclerc in the wall.

“We were running maximum downforce at the end," added Binotto.

"We tried to reduce it in FP2 but then we went back to the maximum downforce, so we didn’t try to mitigate with the downforce level.

“But it is true that in terms of the turbo, it is maybe a little smaller but we are not as efficient or we didn’t have the capacity to run at maximum power.”