After the summer break, for Ferrari the music is always the same
Aunt promise on the eve that end up being disregarded again. Today as in Hungary a month ago. And as in Budapest, the Ferrari he had to take advantage of Verstappen's departure from the midfield and he didn't. Today, however, one got the impression that the F1-75, perhaps for the first time in this bittersweet season, was clearly slower than the RB18.
IERI (Yesterday) Verstappen he was the fastest in qualifying, detaching Sainz by 7 tenths and today Leclerc managed to get within only 6 tenths of the Dutchman's fastest lap. Leaving aside Sainz's race for a moment which, as he himself underlined in the statements after the Grand Prix, he did everything possible by clawing for a podium, let's focus on Leclerc's race.
Leclerc's misfortune
The Monegasque started from fifteenth position for a penalty and on the first lap he was good at avoiding accidents and getting back up to the nona square. Shortly thereafter, however, his race immediately went uphill. In an unfortunate chain reaction, oil leaking from Hamilton's W13 fouled the Verstappen tear-off visor, forced to get rid of it as soon as possible.
This small piece of plastic, insignificant when compared to the size of an entire single-seater, is finished right inside Leclerc's F1-75 and forced the Monegasque to carry out a early stop to allow the mechanics to remove the unwanted guest.
After that Leclerc had to start the second comeback of the day in a few laps, while Verstappen was traveling comfortably about ten positions ahead. Finished close to the podium, in fourth position, however, he was forced to surrender to an aggressive Russell and his Mercedes, reborn after yesterday's disastrous qualifying.
As if that weren't enough, the Ferrari strategists wanted sacrifice one still good P5 to steal the point of the quick ride to direct rival Verstappen. But without realizing that Alonso was, as they say across the Channel, too close for comfort and passed the number 16 Ferrari, which was thus forced to throw away its ambitions for a fastest lap in order to regain the position.
Archive 2022 and think about a better 2023
But the bad luck doesn't end there: to make a pit stop (among other things after insisted on staying out), Leclerc has exceeded the speed limit in the pitlane and it was relegated to sixth place. Moral of the story: instead of wasting energy on impossible ambitions of a world comeback, Ferrari should try to see each race as a world unto itself and try to optimize every single result, without risking risky strategies or counting from a global point of view.
Both titles are now lost, flown to Anglo-Austrian land, by the beverage rivals who had started the championship so badly and now instead have come back to the sound of braces. Just think about do as Vettel did in 2013, to win all the races after the summer break. In Maranello we have to do like Rosberg in 2015: accept that the world championship is over and finish the year in the best possible way, laying the foundations for domination the following year.
