During the rain-soaked final laps of the Australian Grand Prix, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur admitted they had blundered by opting to leave Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc on slick tyres longer than the competition, a move that didn’t pay off as hoped.
As a heavy downpour approached the Albert Park Circuit with just 13 laps left, Leclerc and Hamilton found themselves in sixth and eighth places. The wet conditions began to wreak havoc, causing the McLarens to slip off-track, with Oscar Piastri completely spinning out by the end of lap 44. Sensing the change, Lando Norris, who was then leading, immediately headed to the pits for intermediate tyres.
Max Verstappen briefly capitalized on this by taking the lead as he stayed out, yet as the rain intensified, even his team called him in for a tire change two laps later. Despite the worsening conditions, Ferrari held their drivers until lap 47 before finally pitting, after the Safety Car came out for incidents involving Gabriel Bortoleto on intermediates and Liam Lawson still on slicks.
By the time Hamilton and Leclerc switched to intermediate tyres, they had managed to climb to second and third, trailing only the intermediate-fitted Norris. However, the decision to stop for intermediates before the restart saw them slip to ninth and tenth positions, negating any advantage gained.
So, why take such a gamble? Vasseur explained it stemmed from peculiar conditions, with the first two sectors remaining dry while the third was soaked. Ferrari, along with Red Bull, made a bet on conditions improving alongside sticking with slicks. “Competing with the likes of Mercedes and McLaren—with McLaren having pitted after going off—that’s where our strategy misfired. Ideally, stopping the same lap as Max would have been optimal,” Vasseur admitted.
Could sticking with slicks have been feasible? Sky Sports F1 analysts Martin Brundle, David Croft, and Ted Kravitz weighed in with mixed opinions. Brundle felt keeping on track on slicks might’ve been too challenging, and Croft highlighted the sheer talent of these drivers, whereas Kravitz suggested once a certain threshold was reached, taking the safe route might’ve been wiser under a Safety Car.
Communication during the rain added more complexity. Post-race, a clearly frustrated Hamilton questioned his engineer on the team’s weather forecast on the radio. Meanwhile, Leclerc seemed to have received clearer alerts regarding the impending heavy rain.
Addressing this confusion, Vasseur mentioned the inherent difficulty in predicting weather changes on the fly, “We rely on visual cues and radar data, but rain isn’t always uniform across the track.”
As the season moves forward, Formula One fans eagerly await the next race in Shanghai, marking the first Sprint weekend at the Chinese Grand Prix. Coverage will be available on Sky Sports F1, offering fans an in-depth look at the unfolding drama in the motorsport world.
