Ferrari really dropped all the balls this weekend. Sainz has been in the way of other drivers repeatedly, which falls on his engineer who should let him know when cars are coming. In rainy conditions the drivers can’t see jack nothing in their mirrors and it’s like Sainz was just left to his own devices by his engineer.

Honorable mention for Tsunoda doing his best mobile roadblock impression. Holy heck he was constantly in the way this weekend.

Then there is poor Leclerc. He asked for slicks, and his team overruled him and it caused him to be eliminated in Q2. How much longer can he stomach Ferrari incompetence before he starts putting feelers out for a drive elsewhere? As things are going at the Ferrari strategy desk it’s clear the prancing horse has bolted the barn and his chances of getting a championship is in the low zeros.

  • ghose
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    12 years ago

    yes, poor management from strategy/pit wall people. Again.

    It’s beyond my understanding how a team like this can make basic errors. It should be a given that you cover the basics of car racing procedures as is communication with your drivers and being sure drivers and pitwall are reading the same page of the manual.

    All said, I can not agree with how Charles over reacts as if he was fighting for WDC. Of course, several years in his contract with Ferrari and it might be that he sees no progress in the team.

    They fired head strategist for this year but are making the same errors.

  • Cool Beance
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    02 years ago

    At this point I feel like a Red Bull drive, where he replaces Perez, is the ideal move for someone as talented as Leclerc. The opening races of the 2022 season really showed that he can keep up with Max on nearly every level. I hope he gets the chance

    • regal
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      02 years ago

      Unfortunately, as long as Max is at red bull I doubt we will see someone as talented as Leclerc move there. They need a number 2 driver, not someone that can challenge Max.

      I would love to see Lando move to red bull if Max goes for an early retirement but realistically they will probably just get tsunoda once checo’s contract expires.

      • @Amoeba_of_death@lemmy.world
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        12 years ago

        Agreed, they need to find their Bottas 2.0. Perez was filling that role. However, even with such a dominant car, Checo is falling behind the last few races. Would not be surprised if a replacement was called up next year. For sure the year after if there’s is a contract issue.

        • @frank@sopuli.xyz
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          12 years ago

          We were debating this today. Who do you promote? Yuki perhaps?

          I feel like the succession plan for Merc and Ferrari have more options than RBR for a Max pairing

  • @FlayOtters@lemmy.world
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    02 years ago

    It was very telling when Leclerc said he thinks he should be on soft and the response over the radio was that Verstappen was on the same tyre as him. That’s not the point!

    I really think he want out the team but there’s no other options at the minute.

    • @frank@sopuli.xyz
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      02 years ago

      This is such a want and not based in reality:

      Whenever HAM retires, Leclerc making the switch to Merc would just delight me. I’d be really curious how he and George stack up

      • @FlayOtters@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        It’s a shame the timing doesn’t line up better with Leclerc’s contract ending/Hamilton’s retirement (not currently anyway).

        Lando still the most likely Mercedes pick for 2026 for me.

        • @frank@sopuli.xyz
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          02 years ago

          I agree on both accounts. Another interesting pairing would be George and Lando. Besides Max (in a bit of a field of his own?) It’s hard to tell how the “middle aged” F1 generation stacks up (Leclerc, Lando, George, Albon, specifically)

          • @florge@lemmy.world
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            12 years ago

            Weird to think of those four drivers as middle aged, but they have been around a while now.

  • @Henrik@lemmy.world
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    02 years ago

    Where’s the guy who kept a running list of Ferrari mess-ups for the 2023 season? It’s got to be long by now.

    Disappointed on behalf of both drivers.

  • @somniumx@feddit.de
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    02 years ago

    Poor Charles, one week after seeing what Ferrari can do in Le mans it’s back to the classic clown show in the F1 pit…

    • @quintinza@lemmy.worldOP
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      02 years ago

      I feel for him. He is one of the fastest drivers in the field, and where others’ (Ham, Russel, Norris, for instance) lack of results this year is mostly down to a bad car package, in Ferrari’s case it’s just strategy and team not listening to their drivers.

      I mean the Ferrari is not a slow car, up to Monaco it’s been the second/third fastest car in the field, but the Ferrari clownshoes tripping over themselves has not allowed their drivers to get the most out of the car.

      • @somniumx@feddit.de
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        02 years ago

        Yeah, Leclerc has the chance to be one of the biggest and saddest what ifs in current F1 history. He’s a bit prone to errors, I think he’s trying to hard sometimes, to make up for shit from the pits. But I can’t remember a driver and car combination so promising, yet so underperforming in current times.

        • @quintinza@lemmy.worldOP
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          12 years ago

          I agree re the errors. Key difference is that he has zero buffer against the odd error, because when he gets it right Ferrari goes out of their way to screw it up.

          And 100% on him trying too hard because he has to try salvage a result against the pitwall’s best attempts to snooker him.

          • Sabzhero
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            12 years ago

            And this reminds me strongly of Vettel’s stint at Ferrari. Just drained the energy out of him.