Ferrari have moved to explain some of the thinking behind their much-discussed strategy decision for Charles Leclerc in the Hungarian Grand Prix. Starting third, the Monegasque managed to clear teammate Carlos Sainz during the opening pit-stops, before passing Mercedes' George Russell for the lead of the race. Leclerc increased his lead over Russell, but a fast Max Verstappen pitted first during the second round of stops, encouraging Ferrari to respond. They opted to pit Leclerc for Hard tyres but, owing to difficulties in warming them up, he fell behind Verstappen and Russell, who were running the Mediums. Ferrari ultimately decided to bring Leclerc in for a third time to switch onto the Soft tyres, but this led to him finishing the race down in sixth. Following the race, Leclerc himself seemed at a loss to explain why the call to use the Hard compound had been made, with the driver telling Sky Sports F1 : "I said on the radio that I was very comfortable with the Medium tyres and that I wanted to go as long as possible with those tyres, because the feeling was good, but I don't know why we took a different decision."
Binotto explains why Ferrari chose Hard tyre
Mattia Binotto, team boss at Ferrari, was also quizzed on the decision, and explained some of the reasoning behind the Scuderia opting to use the Hard compound for the second stint. "We knew the Hard tyres have got some warm-up difficulties," Binotto told Sky Sports F1 . "A couple of laps and they would not have been as fast as the Medium for 10/11 laps, but then to the end it was a stint of 30 laps. "We believed that they could have been fast enough somehow to be in the race, and try to certainly have a good position by the end of the race. "But overall, they didn't work as we were expecting. I think the main reason of it [was] because the car was not working as we were expecting, but let's see, let's analyse and let's have a conclusion later."
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