The Losail race was experienced entirely in defense of the Ferrari, that on an unprecedented track brought home a double points placing very useful for the constructors’ classification. The seventh place of Carlos Sainz and the eighth of Charles Leclerc are not the kind of placements that can make fans dream, but they were the maximum possible result in a race played by the reds above all on the need not to wear out too much tires. In the end, the track proved the Cavallino team right, especially in the comparison with McLaren for the race for third constructors place. Now the Woking team has fallen to -39.5 lengths.
The weekend had started badly for the Italian team, especially for the problems occurred to the car of Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque was only 13th in qualifying but in the Qatari evening the team discovered a problem with the chassis of the SF21 # 16. The mechanics were very good at replacing it chassis on schedule, allowing the Monegasque to start regularly from his position on the starting grid. After the race, however, the Ferrari team principal was asked Mattia Binotto if it couldn’t be better for the driver to start from the bottom of the grid with a new power unit. Speaking to Sky Sport F1 however, the boss of the red wall has ruled out that there was ever this possibility.
“Changing the engine is now irrelevant – commented – we introduced the new hybrid part a few races ago. The engine is reliable and does not drop in performance with the mileage, so there was no need to change it. If we had changed Charles would not have made eighth “. Binotto then also ruled out the hypothesis of team order to reverse the drivers’ positions and allow Leclerc to attack Stroll and Ocon, who preceded the Ferrari duo. “Charles tried to ask us over the radio. In reality, however, at that stage we were managing the tires, not pushing. It’s not like Carlos couldn’t have gone faster. We were the ones who didn’t want to make him go faster so as not to be in risky puncture conditions, as others have done“, Concluded the team principal.
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