Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto is adamant that the team gave themselves the "best chance" of victory in the Miami Grand Prix with their strategy behind the Safety Car. With Red Bull's Max Verstappen leading from Ferrari pair Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, a late-race Safety Car looked set to spark a flurry of pit lane activity. However, the top three drivers stayed out on their used Hard tyres, meaning track positions were maintained for the restart, after which Verstappen resisted a charge from Leclerc to take victory. Binotto's counterpart at Red Bull, Christian Horner, stated post-race that his team got "lucky" with Ferrari's decision not to pit either of their cars for Soft rubber in a bid to put Verstappen under more pressure.
Binotto confident Ferrari made the correct call
Binotto has since explained why Ferrari made the call not to pit, pointing to tyre preparation and having no new Softs available. "We believed that, in terms of warm-up, a used tyre would have been stronger [than] a new one," Binotto told media, including RacingNews365.com . "We would have suffered more warm-up issues with a new Hard, which was the one that we had available in the garage. "We decided simply to stay out, because we believed that was the best chance for us, to have a good warm-up and try to attack in the first laps, which is what happened."
Verstappen and Red Bull "deserved to win"
Leclerc came close to passing Verstappen following the restart, via a moment at the Turn 14-15 chicane, where he clattered the kerbs. However, the Monegasque admitted that - putting strategy to one side - his Dutch rival was simply "a bit quicker" in race trim. "On that particular lap I overdid it, but I actually didn't lose that much compared to my previous lap," said Leclerc of his close call. "I was surprised. It was a big hit, but I kind of managed it quite well, so it didn't have any consequence on the opportunity for overtaking. "I think there was one very good opportunity on the second lap after the Safety Car, but there was no DRS. "Apart from that, Red Bull deserved to win and Max deserved to win – he was a bit quicker than us today."
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