Ferrari with nothing to lose in Madrid
There is one certainty ahead of today’s Madrid GP: overtaking is impossible. Positions, barring gross errors after the first lap, could easily remain frozen and so strategy comes into play.
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Obviously, the goal is to wait for a possible neutralization to make the pit stop and one might even consider the idea of taking an incredible risk when there is little to lose. The issue is related to waiting for a red flag to change tires and thus avoid pitting during the race.
Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur outlined this extreme scenario to Sky microphones, but called it perhaps too big a risk: “The race will be chaotic – said Vasseur – obviously you cannot predict Safety Cars, Virtual Safety Cars, or a red flag. The best thing would be to wait for the red flag, but it is too high a risk.”
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Tire degradation is relatively frightening because in lower formulas even a performance gap of about two seconds was not enough to overtake: “No one has done real long runs and the track has changed a lot compared to Friday. How much it has improved will be another key point in race management.”
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