Ferrari team principal, Mattia Binotto, has affirmed that no changes are needed at the Scuderia after more calamities at the Dutch Grand Prix.
Strategic mistakes have long been a theme of the Scuderia, and Sebastian Vettel ended up acting as a strategist and a driver all at once as he tried to bring home the championship in red.
This year, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc have been victims of errors from the Italian side, which have affected them in Monaco, Silverstone, Budapest, Spa and now Zandvoort.
Sainz had started third behind Max Verstappen and Leclerc in the Netherlands, but he lost that spot when he came into the pits following an extremely late call.
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Ferrari had been worried about Sir Lewis Hamilton trying the undercut behind them, but such was the lateness of the decision, that one of the mechanics ended up in the wrong part of the pit box.
They then had to get themselves and the tyre back through the crowd of bodies to make their way round to the left rear of the car.
The tyre finally arrived, but the stop had taken nearly half a minute, and Sainz’s race had been massively compromised.
A late Safety Car enabled Sainz to climb above Sergio Perez in the order, but he had already been penalised for an unsafe release, when he had to slow down to avoid the McLaren mechanics, as they were working on Lando Norris’ car in the tight pit lane.
That took him into the path of Fernando Alonso, earning him a five-second penalty, which summed up what had been a rough afternoon for Sainz.
There was some silver lining after he had eventually finished eighth on the timing screens though – he had passed Esteban Ocon going into a yellow flag zone when Valtteri Bottas’ Alfa Romeo came to a halt, but the 27-year-old had his nose in front by the time they reached the first yellow, so he avoided a penalty.
Nonetheless, following so many strategic mistakes and reliability failures that have been costly to both drivers, Nico Rosberg suggested that changes were needed at Ferrari.
Binotto rebuked this, and stood by his team during another difficult moment for the Maranello-based squad.
“We will not change people, that’s a straight answer to Rosberg,” he affirmed.
“What is more important is simply the stability and making sure you’re improving race by race, we have a great team, I have no doubt about that.”
Sainz bemoaned his mightily unfortunate day after the race, but argued that his unsafe release penalty was unjustified.
“It was a mess,” conceded the Spaniard in the media pen.
“The whole race, [we were] in trouble, first with the confusing pit stop that we had, then with the yellow flag that I think I saved myself by very little margins.
“And then, the unsafe release that wasn’t an unsafe release, I was launched into the pit lane correctly.
“The problem is I had to brake to not take a McLaren guy out of his life and, because of taking avoiding action, they give you a penalty.
“I find this very frustrating, and I’m going to go and speak with the FIA now, because I don’t understand it.”
The 27-year-old identified that Ferrari’s race pace is where they are lacking compared to Red Bull – particularly Max Verstappen, who took his 10th win of the season last weekend.
“It’s race pace where we are missing,” explained Sainz.
“I am not happy with how the car felt in the race, it was super tricky to drive.
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“We were always fighting he rear a lot, and [there was] a lot of overheating, and [I want] to find why the car in the race is not as strong as in quali.”
Ferrari are now 135 points adrift of Red Bull in the constructors’ Standings and.
Following George Russell’s P2 finish in Zandvoort ahead of Leclerc while Hamilton ended up fourth, Mercedes have closed the gap to the Scuderia back to 30 points in the battle for second.