Ex-F1 driver calls for heads to roll at Ferrari as Mattia Binotto faces the sack

Charles Leclerc went from P1 to P6 at the Hungarian GP.

Scuderia Ferrari have a mountain to climb should they wish to get back in the title fight, after their strategic error at the Hungarian Grand Prix summed up their mistake-ridden first half of the season.

Strategic errors have been the downfall of Ferrari this season, with Charles Leclerc having lost the race lead and ultimately victory three times this year due to strategic blunders.

The Hungarian GP saw Ferrari make another bizarre error, after they decided to go against the advice of Pirelli.

The tyre manufacturer advised all teams not to use the Hard compound, which they explained would be borderline impossible to warm-up due to the Hungaroring being particularly cool for a summer day.

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Ferrari clearly believed they knew better than Pirelli, as they decided to pit Leclerc from the race lead and fit him onto the hardest compound.

With Leclerc sliding all over the circuit as a result, Ferrari quickly realised they’d made yet another error.

As a result, Leclerc was pitted again, dropping him from first to sixth, gifting Max Verstappen his eighth victory of the season.

Ex-F1 driver Marc Surer simply couldn’t believe the Italians had made another silly error.

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“Yeah, if you put the wrong tyres on. He was leading the race before – it’s really too slow…,” said the 70-year-old to Formel1.de.

If Surer had it his way, he’d fire all the strategists, with the former Brabham driver labelling the situation with Ferrari’s strategists as “unbelievable”.

“The strategists should be fired,” said Surer.

“You can really only shake your head at the fact they just manage to make the wrong decision again and again. I’d fire all the strategy people!

“How you can get so much wrong, it’s unbelievable.”

Many, including ex-F1 driver Ralf Schumacher, have called for Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto to be dropped from his role.

Binotto has failed to admit on several occasions that his side made a mistake, with Leclerc becoming increasingly frustrated with his team arguably ruining his title bid.

However, Surer doesn’t think blaming Binotto is correct, with the 70-year-old believing someone from the top of the Ferrari hierarchy needs to get involved.

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“But somehow someone from the top should actually say something – ‘what are they actually doing? We have the fastest car in the field’,” he added.

Surer criticised Ferrari chairman John Elkann, who in the ex-driver’s opinion needs to be “in front of the camera”, just as Enzo Ferrari would have done.

“Someone you had in front of the camera and who then also made an announcement, that’s missing now,” said the Swiss pundit. “Maybe that’s the reason why it’s just rippling along now.”