Leclerc lauds Ferrari after Perez dummy sale

Sam Hall
Wednesday 23 November 2022 18:14

Charles Leclerc was able to hail a "perfect" strategy from Ferrari that allowed him to secure the consolation of second in the F1 drivers' standings this season.

Ferrari came under fire for a number of questionable strategic decisions over the course of the campaign that cost the team either potential wins or podiums.

But at the F1 season finale, the Scuderia got its calls spot on, notably with a dummy call for Leclerc to pit that enticed Red Bull to bring in Sergio Perez in order to avoid an undercut.

This decision ultimately swayed the result as Leclerc was able to make his hard tyres last to the chequered flag due to Perez losing time in traffic and falling short of catching his rival by just over one second.

"The race was really, really perfect execution from our side," said Leclerc.

"I don't think we had the pace of the Red Bulls, so our goal from the beginning was to try and push Checo to do something different, which we did perfectly.

"And with great tyre management, we made the one-stop work, which eventually got us second place."

Asked how tense the closing stages had been with the Red Bull looming larger in his mirrors, he added: "It was really, really tricky.

"Especially at the end of the stint on the hard, even though we had really, really good [tyre] management to be honest.

"It’s tricky, because when you get to the end of the race, the front-locking started to become a problem, so it was very easy to do a mistake.

"But in the end, we kept everything under control and managed to keep Checo behind."