Last weekend’s Russian Grand Prix was a mixed bag for Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc having a strong weekend and finishing the race in sixth position, while Sebastian Vettel ended up a few places outside the points.
Vettel was quick to accuse the team of compromising his pit strategy to slow the two Renaults down in a bid to help Leclerc score more points.
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“I played the brake block until the pit stop. After that there was not much left,” Vettel said following the race.
“It was clear I was left out to slow down the Renaults. It didn’t help me, of course. I think we could have taken a point but that doesn’t change much now.”
However, Ferrari’s chief strategist, Inaki Rueda, has rejected claims the team deliberately compromised Vettel’s race to help his team-mate.
“Vettel did not have the speed to overtake. An undercut on Grosjean and Giovinazzi was an option, but then he would have been stuck behind Magnussen for the whole race,” Rueda said in a recent interview.
“We asked Vettel about the condition of his tyres and on that basis we stuck to our plan,” he added.
Continuing, Rueda said: “From lap 17, Seb made up more and more of his deficit and we came to a point where he could switch to the soft tyre. However, his tyres gave up earlier and with 23 laps to go the bet to go to the soft tyre was too big.”
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