Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Albert Park, 2019

Ferrari explains why Leclerc was told not to pass Vettel

2019 Australian Grand Prix

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Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto praised Charles Leclerc for being a “team player” and explained why he was told not to pass Sebastian Vettel at the end of the race.

Leclerc caught his team mate during the final laps of the race but was told to “back off to have some margin” when he asked if he was allowed to pass Vettel.

Binotto explains that because Vettel was on older tyres at the time and struggling for pace, the team decided to tell its drivers to hold position.

“When Seb pitted for the medium tyres he didn’t have on that new tyres the grip he expecting and he was attacked [and passed] by Verstappen,” said Binotto.

“So we decided to bring the car home. He was managing the tyres to the end and I think that 10 laps to the end as a team we decided not to take any risks, hold positions and bring the cars home, scoring points.

Binotto said the decision was “not a difficult one”.

“Sebastian was managing his pace because of poor grip, bringing the car home. Charles did a great second stint but [with] 10 laps to go there was no reason to take risks today. We were not battling for the first position.”

Leclerc was unhappy with his performance in qualifying yesterday but Binotto praised the job his new driver did in his first race weekend. “I’m happy with the way he is behaving as a team player, not only as a driver,” he said.

“He’s very helpful for the team. He is very involved, trying to do his best, pushing hard the engineers to improve and have a better car.

“I think if we judge his entire weekend it’s a pretty strong one. His quali wasn’t perfect, he’s aware of it. But I think he drove well through Q1 and Q2, maybe not perfect in Q3.

“But generally speaking he had a good weekend. I think his second stint was also performing well. So I’m quite happy with the way he’s approaching the first race. He’s at the starting point, it’s a good starting point.”

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2019 F1 season

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42 comments on “Ferrari explains why Leclerc was told not to pass Vettel”

  1. Ferrari trying hard to preserve Seebashem’s dignity!
    Also to prevent the inevitable SV meltdown.

    1. Well considering Hamiltons almost as bad strategy as Vettels put him 20+ seconds adrift of his team mate, Vettel did pretty well to even be in that position relative to his team mate.

      1. @Initially

        Only if you ignore Hamilton’s floor damage

        1. Panagiotis Papatheodorou (@panagiotism-papatheodorou)
          17th March 2019, 11:54

          Vettel may have had an MGU-K though.

          1. I hear they are fitted as standard

  2. Hmmm … I would have liked to see them let the new boy run free for the first race of the season.
    Maybe they should ask Kimi to come back?

    1. Too expensive for less performance.

      1. Yes, cause the money ferrari saves on raikkonen is being used well in development, oh wait, 3rd car with no chance to compete for 2nd right now!

      2. Too expensive for less performance.

        The longer Raikkonen is away from the Ferrari the slower the car will get.

  3. Ferrari already worried that Vettel will start smashing into his team mate. Leclerc just about managed to save the team from a double knockout at the start when Vettel turned into him.

  4. Even less respect for Ferrari now. Let them race, there’s a long old season to keep Vettel happy.

  5. GtisBetter (@)
    17th March 2019, 11:11

    We all know why he was not allowed to pass, cause Vettel has the best chance to be WDC for Ferrari and needs every point. Just say it.

    1. But that might not be the case with Lec!

  6. I’d have at least pitted either Ferrari and have a go at the extra point. Binotto’s excuse is a bit meh.

    1. Exactly as predicted, Ferrari bungled the fastest lap strategy and lost a point.

      Seems they haven’t sorted their rubbish strategy department for this season. Is this the anti blame-game culture gone too far?

  7. Leclerc finds out very quickly what it means to be the less favoured Ferrari driver. Importantly, I don’t believe that would have been any different were they battling for first position as Binotto said, if anything then there would be even less reason to take that risk. I’m sure Leclerc will take it sensibly, for a while at least, but I doubt in the long run he’ll be as passive about it as Raikkonen appeared.

    I suppose they could have been a bit more decent and not let him close down a 12 second gap and into the DRS zone before calling him off, it was pretty clear for a number of laps he was going to catch Vettel.

  8. Magnus Rubensson (@)
    17th March 2019, 11:42

    Just taking a very quick break from watching the Austria 2002 GP finish on repeat.
    Wow that was exciting stuff. Did RB blow the engine on the finish line? Guess he must have.

    Now, has anything happened in modern F1 lately…?
    :)

  9. what is the risk of LEC passing VET on a straight line ? WHy is Binotto saying Leclerc is a bad driver?

    1. Maybe he was worried Vettel would spin again?

  10. I’ve said previously that Charles is smart to asked first. Charles also mention the team order subtly in post race interview without being upset but enough to get the attention. He’s a bit faster but its Australia and he had harder compound tyre anyway and I think he knew that. He now earn team sympathy and Seb will heard this. It would be hard for Ferrari not to let him fight when he was had the pace later on. Maybe even James-ed Seb.

    I rate him technicality and mentally ready to be in the big team.

    1. @ruliemaulana – very nice comment!

  11. Sonny Crockett
    17th March 2019, 12:23

    This is why I’m not a Ferrari fan.

    First race of the season and their new boy has the chance to outscore his teammate without needing to do anything that would jeopardise either of them.

    They didn’t even spice things up by pitting Lecerc so that he could try to get the extra point for the fastest lap.

    All in all, the opposite of what F1 fans want to see when they when they watch a Grand Prix.

    1. F1oSaurus (@)
      17th March 2019, 14:01

      Exactly. Leclerc would simply have breezed past anyway, so the whole “danger” element is bogus. This was just about confirming that Vettel is their #1.

      1. If the number 2 proves better than number 1 he’ll become number 1, 2014 ricciardo.

  12. Come on, this wasn’t a justified decision or a reasonable excuse. Ferrari stated they would allow them to race. They didn’t. And if they wanted, they could have just told Vettel to let Leclerc pass, incident free. If they can’t race when car is demonstrably slower (easier to pass) and there’s no other car around them on track, when will they?

    This was managing the points loss for Vettel, nothing else.

    1. * when one car

    2. @david-br

      Completely agree. There’s no justification for team orders in race 1, especially if there’s a massive performance gap between the cars. I could understand if both the cars are lapping at a similar pace and racing each other would involve some aggressive moves, but in this situation Leclerc could have passed him easily.

      I also find it incredibly daft because Verstappen was just 5 seconds up the road with around 10 laps left. Just incase Red bull faced any technical issues in the closing stages of the race or made any slip ups (like going off) then Ferrari should be there to capitalise on a podium opportunity. There’s no way Seb would have been able to do that.. So why not have Leclerc in that position.

      Poor decision making from Binnoto. I thought he’d be more intelligent than that.

      1. @todfod The thing is, it’s quite likely to keep happening. Vettel is superb in qualifying and so could end up ahead on the grid more often. Leclerc’s strength seems to be his race pace and good judgment, so the chances of him catching Vettel or getting past him through some incident with SV are high. It just wasn’t a good sign.

        1. @david-br

          Agree. That’s why I believe how Ferrari manage their drivers is so important. I think they’ve already made a bad call in race 1. They might get to a point in the season where they realise they’ve been backing the wrong horse… And it might already be too late by then.

          Overall, I just don’t think Ferrari has thought things through regarding their #1 and #2 driver philosophy and then hiring the best possible driver for each of those roles.

          1. @todfod I guess that driver philosophy could change, also the managerial structure has changed since Leclerc signed, so maybe a bit of ‘interpretation’ of his contract could happen still. In fact, from what I read, he was the one who said (or heavily implied) pre-season that he was there to support Vettel and the team in his first season, while Ferrari said they were free to race. I guess his coolest option would be to play this support role and show he’s the ‘safe’ driver, capable of beating Vettel over a race if need be (and allowed) and ‘being there’ if the latter makes the kind if mistakes he made the last two seasons. I mean, I presume that’s his actual goal – not to be the number 2 driver for any longer than necessarily, and ideally for the first bunch of races only. I’m not saying he can or will do that, Vettel may have a great season.

  13. I wish I could tell binotti to good face that he is a liar and a very disrespectful to tell us such rubbish. I hope a reporter calls him out on it

  14. Ferrari, you won’t be WCC by not taking risks.

  15. Surprised they told him to hold station – if he was quicker let him pass.

    That said Leclerc didn’t seem to have the pace on Vettel until near the end of the race. Perhaps Ferrari aren’t confident to throw their weight behind Leclerc just yet.

    Must give Vettel something to think about though.

    1. @rocketpanda To be honest I thought this was somewhat predictable. Vettel ahead in qualifying, Leclerc coming back during the race, where his best strengths seem to lie. Ferrari can’t dodge this issue, it’s just going to grow. They’ve already gifted Vettel a few points for this race for no good reason. And they did say they would let them race. Not good.

    2. Vettel 4th – Leclerc 5th or Leclerc 4th – Vettel 5th no matter in what order they would have finished, that was the points Ferrari having today’s race. Only difference would have made, if Vettel or Leclerc would have going after for fastest lap. So not pitting either of them was a mistake in my book.

  16. ChorltonDragon
    17th March 2019, 15:35

    Must be nice for Vettel to know he has an invisible wall behind him…

  17. Shame in you Ferrari. Shame in you.

  18. Charles, this is James..

  19. MaliceCooper
    18th March 2019, 9:09

    Vettel is the big name star, the Ben Affleck, riding a wave of glory. They’re not about to let him be upstaged by The New Guy.

  20. Respect for Leclerc. Ferrari starts the season how the ended the previous. In panic and in a mess. Team orders pfff. I would have given Leclerc the chance to show what he really is capable of. Ferrari fans need fresh new blood.

  21. Ferrari: “Please stay behind Sebastian because he’s much faster than you.”
    Ferrari: “Please stay behind Sebastian because he’s much slower than you.”

  22. And this is _exactly_ why Danny Ric didn’t want to wear red this year.

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