Vettel Pleaded With Ferrari To Pit Sooner At Russian GP

After the race, Vettel accused Ferrari of compromising his strategy to help team-mate Leclerc.

Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel finished the Russian Grand Prix sixth and 13th, respectively.

Vettel was struggling with the balance of his Ferrari SF1000 all weekend, but a compromised strategy also hurt him in the race.

READ: Ferrari Will Trial Aero Upgrades At Eifel Grand Prix

In a post-race interview at Sochi, Vettel accused the Scuderia of leaving him out to act as a “brake block” and hold up the two Renaults in a bid to help team-mate Charles Leclerc, who changed tyres much sooner than the German.

“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,” Vettel said.

And, team radio now heard by Formula1News.co.uk confirms that Ferrari did indeed force him to stay out much longer than he wanted.

Vettel got on the radio to his race engineer several times, pleading with the team to let him pit for a fresh set of tyres.

“Might as well box. What do we lose if we box? What do we lose?” Vettel said, to which his race engineer replied “stay out for now, I’ll let you know.”

His engineer then repeatedly told the four-time World Champion to stay out.

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“The tyres are gone. We need to box,” Vettel said, before Ferrari finally allowed him to pit.

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