Ferrari Formula 1 team principal Mattia Binotto and Outgoing Ferrari driver Vettel dismissed idea of rift between the team and Sebastian Vettel. And Binotto feeling “quite surprised” by the suggestion.
Vettel finished seventh in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, after late call from pit wall to convert two stop into risky one-stop strategy.
During the Race Vettel asking the Ferrari pit wall for guidance on his strategy, with the team appearing to take some time to issue a reply.It was the second race in a row there had been some exchanges back and forth between Vettel and the engineers regarding his strategy, following some confusion at Silverstone last Sunday.
While Talking to Sky Sports Italia after the Race, Binotto felt it was unfair to call the exchange between Seb and pit-wall during Spanish GP as misunderstandings,instead calling it a strength of Ferrari to discuss its plans openly.
“We prefer to talk openly. Others don’t, perhaps so as not to reveal their intentions,”
“We think it’s the right way even if we ask questions on both sides. Looking at the last races, the choices made have proved to be correct, so we welcome the discussion and the question marks.
“For us they are open dialogues that lead us to make the right choice”.
Binotto on communication with Vettel had become more terse?
“I do not notice what you’re mentioning,At least from our side, we’ve not changed a different type of turn or what else, so [I’m] quite surprised. It’s not the case.”
Vettel echoed Binotto’s comments after the race, saying a lack of communication at times during sessions was not indicative of a deteriorating relationship.
“From my side it’s no different to how it has been, Sometimes you talk on the radio, but we see each other the whole day, so you can talk the whole day.
“You don’t need to talk on the radio all the time. Nothing has changed.”
What Drivers Say?
Sebastian Vettel
“Today we tried something different and it paid off. I was struggling in the first stint, even on medium tyres, while in the second one I felt a lot better, despite having the soft tyre for many laps.
There was some rain forecast at some stage so we extended our stint on softs. In the end we were in a position in which we had nothing to lose, so we took the risk and decided to try and make it to the end. Luckily it worked and this result reflects the maximum we could do today with the car.
There is still lots of work to do, but at the moment this is our true pace, that’s why sometimes we have to take some risks in order to have more or different options to finish ahead of our competitors.”
Charles Leclerc
“It’s a shame that we couldn’t finish the race today. I think we had a good chance to finish around P6 or even higher. We were very competitive on the softs and were also quick on the mediums, which we couldn’t fully show because of traffic. The plan was for me to do a one-stop and it was going quite well.
Unfortunately, we had an issue around midrace. Suddenly my screen and engine switched off and the rear wheels locked. We are not yet sure what happened and are investigating the cause. The car eventually started up again, but it was already too late to continue because I had undone my seatbelts and had to return to the pits. Although this year is a little bit tougher than last, we are all motivated to bring home the best results possible for the team and we will keep working hard to achieve this.”
Mattia Binotto, Team Principal
“A very disappointing weekend, not just because of the result, but also because of the way we managed it. In qualifying yesterday, we didn’t make the most of the potential at our disposal and we know how important grid position is on this track where overtaking is so difficult.
Despite that, in the race we had a genuine chance of fighting for fourth place with Charles, but a reliability problem put him out of the running. A malfunction in an electronic control unit resulted in his car shutting down, causing him to spin, effectively ending his race.
Sebastian moved up the order well, showing great tenacity and driving very cleanly: doing a 36 lap stint on used Soft tyres is quite something. The same observation goes for him as well as for Charles: starting further up the grid he could have aspired to do better than seventh.
We have dropped out of third spot in the Constructors’ classification, even if by just a few points. We must always get all the potential out of our car if we want to achieve this goal and we must continue to work hard to close the gap to those who today were out of reach for us, namely the only three cars that completed all the laps of this Grand Prix.”
