Everyone Angry
Behind-the-scenes details that are anything but pleasant for Ferrari continue to emerge regarding the management of strategies during the Dutch GP. The subject of discord is always the delicate situation in which Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton found themselves lined up one behind the other, with different race plans and various tactical needs.
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The Monegasque, who was ahead on track at that moment, needed to extend his stint to ‘offset’ it as much as possible compared to George Russell’s, so as to have a much fresher tire available than the Englishman in the final part of the GP; Hamilton, on the other hand, needed clear track ahead to keep pushing his pace with the goal of maximizing performance in that phase of the race, so as to manage to stay ahead of at least one of the two Mercedes. However, the red pit wall managed the not easy feat of making both drivers angry, making each of them think they had been ‘sacrificed’ in favor of the other.
The team radio with Bozzi
We have already written about Lewis Hamilton’s radio nervousness and more, but what has now emerged is that Charles Leclerc also had a rather tough confrontation with his race engineer during that delicate phase of the race. When it was noticed that Leclerc was slowing Hamilton’s car behind him down too much, the Monegasque was called to the pits. However, Leclerc did not want to stop because his intention was to stay on track for at least another couple of laps, if not more, to increase the possible tire delta compared to Russell once the tire set was changed. Bryan Bozzi, however, from the red pit wall, firmly called his driver to order.
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Bozzi: “Come to the pits, Charles.”
Leclerc: “What do you mean? I’ll f*** up the race like this, making the pit stop two laps after Russell.”
Bozzi: “Charles, we want to make the pit stop.”
At this point, Leclerc’s long radio silence after crossing the finish line is not surprising, nor are the quite critical words expressed by the Ferrari driver himself during interviews, when the native of the Principality admitted he had complaints regarding the strategy issue.
