What Charles Leclerc ‘didn’t understand’ about Ferrari’s Zandvoort F1 strategy
Charles Leclerc questioned a Ferrari strategy decision during the Dutch Grand Prix that potentially cost him a podium finish at Zandvoort. The call in question was his pitstop at the end of lap 43, which left the Monegasque with no real weapons to battle George Russell for third in the closing stages of the Formula 1 race.
“I didn’t really understand why we had to box so close to George’s pitstop,” Leclerc said after the race, speaking to Sky Sports. “Because that really was kind of signing to finishing behind George, because with a two or three laps difference, for me there wasn’t much I could have done, and I felt like there was a bit more in my tyres.”
Leclerc was within a second of Russell before the Mercedes driver dived into the pitlane at the end of lap 40 – and could potentially have extended his stint to try to create enough of an offset in tyre life compared to his rival. That tactic proved successful in the race, as this was exactly the strategy that allowed Lando Norris to win. After being stuck behind Kimi Antonelli for almost the entire race, the McLaren driver made his last stop seven laps later than the Italian – and then quickly closed the gap and overtook the Mercedes for the lead.
Ferrari, instead, pitted Leclerc just three laps after Russell.
Speaking to the media after the race, the Monegasque driver said he felt that by doing so he was effectively throwing in the towel in the battle with the Mercedes.
“I was very surprised to box so early when we had done exactly what we wanted,” he said. “George was pitting and so that was the time for us to do five, ten laps longer to build a tyre delta and to come back at the end on George.
“Unfortunately, two laps later I was told to box, which I did I think three laps later.”
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images
One contributing factor to Ferrari asking Leclerc to box earlier than he wanted was, perhaps, Lewis Hamilton. Being on a different strategy, the seven-time world champion caught up with Leclerc right at a crucial moment in his race – and demanded that the team swap the cars around. Whether the team decided to call Leclerc in to avoid slowing Hamilton down is unclear – but Leclerc confirmed he wanted to stay out.
“I need to review the way the situation was looking,” he said, when asked whether he’d been willing to swap positions with Hamilton and extend his stint, “but I was happy to go longer.”
The initial call from Ferrari to box came on lap 42, but Leclerc responded to his engineer with a question: “What do you mean? This fucks my race if I stop two laps after Russell.” Having heard nothing in response, Leclerc added a few seconds later: “Hello?”.
“Yeah coming back to you”, replied his engineer and then later confirmed: “Charles, we want to box” – but the driver drove past the pitlane entry, seemingly still disagreeing with the call – only to hear the command again to pit on the next lap: “So box Charles box, will be for hard.”
After his stop, he emerged from the pits with a gap to Russell of around six seconds – and closed it down to less than two seconds a dozen laps later. Still, the pace difference was too small to count on an overtake on track, as Zandvoort requires a bigger delta.
At that point, he could still have been in contention for a fourth-place finish, as Ferrari left Hamilton on track trying to extend his stint to the end of the race, but given the pace difference, the Briton would likely still have fallen behind both Russell and Leclerc. Yet the VSC on lap 55 offered Ferrari an opportunity to box Hamilton – which the team used. Leclerc pitted too, which locked him into fifth. He caught up with his team-mate, who was chasing Russell at the very end of the race, but both Ferrari drivers ultimately finished behind the Mercedes.
Undercut opportunity missed
The race proved to be one in which Ferrari couldn’t capitalise on its very strong pace due to several factors.
Leclerc’s race could have unfolded very differently had he not lost the position to Oscar Piastri at the restart. But stuck behind the Australian during his first stint, Leclerc couldn’t use his Ferrari’s pace to challenge the leaders.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images
The team delayed his first stop and then opted for the medium compound – compared to Piastri’s hard – to help him get past the McLaren driver, but a slow stop meant he exited the pits six seconds behind the Australian. It took Leclerc only six laps to close in on Piastri and he eventually passed him on lap 34.
By that time Russell was only three seconds up the road – and Leclerc closed that gap just in time for Ferrari to try to undercut the Mercedes. As Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur revealed after the race, that was the initial plan, but the Scuderia strategists hesitated.
“I think it’s a lot about execution,” admitted Vasseur, speaking to Sky Germany. “Pace was good and even strong, I think, compared to Mercedes. The issue is that at the second start we lost position on Piastri. We were stuck behind him. We lost a lot of time – and then when we were able to be in front, at one stage we were quite close to the undercut on Russell. But there was a group of cars, a bit of confusion – and we didn’t do it.
“It’s our mistake, my mistake. But overall it’s more a matter of execution.”
At the end of lap 40, Ferrari told Leclerc, “Box opposite to Russell”, but as the Mercedes driver came in, the undercut opportunity was gone. Despite Vasseur saying it was a mistake not to box Leclerc a lap earlier, that might not have worked either, as Charles would have emerged on track right behind a group of lapped cars comprising Carlos Sainz, Franco Colapinto and Arvid Lindblad – and they could have prevented him from fully exploiting the opportunity on the outlap.
After that, the only real chance for Leclerc to fight for third was to delay his second stop and try to create enough of a tyre delta compared to Russell – but Ferrari ultimately didn’t use it. As a result, despite Vasseur saying Ferrari’s pace was stronger on Sunday than Mercedes’, it was Antonelli and Russell who finished on the podium, with Hamilton and Leclerc right behind.
Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari
Photo by: Bryn Lennon / Formula 1 via Getty Images
As the Monegasque pointed out after the race, despite Ferrari probably not maximising its strategy, the biggest issue for the Scuderia at Zandvoort was that it couldn’t use its race pace on Sunday, mainly because of its lowly grid positions – as the team struggled to match its rivals in qualifying. With Hamilton and Leclerc ending up on the third row at a track where overtaking is difficult, Ferrari was left trying to beat its rivals with strategy.
“I mean a frustrating race to be honest,” Leclerc said after the finish, “because things went the wrong way for things we cannot really control, with the virtual safety car timing, it wasn’t so great for us. But at the end of the day I think the pace was strong, we had a good overtake on Oscar, I think good tyre management.
“The thing we need to understand is our qualifying pace. This is truly where we are lacking at the moment.”
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