Ferrari condemned themselves to a miserable finish in the Hungarian Grand Prix after a strategy call that made “no sense”.
That is the opinion of Martin Brundle, the ex-Formula One driver who was left baffled by the tyre calls made by the Scuderia in the last race before the summer break.
Charles Leclerc looked good to challenge for the race win before a poor stint on the slow Hard tyres dropped him to sixth, allowing Max Verstappen to claim victory and build an 80-point lead atop the Drivers’ Championship.
Brundle expects it will “feel like a very long summer break” at Ferrari as strategy and driver errors continue to hold back their title bid.
“[Leclerc] either had to take soft tyres which wouldn't last until the end of the race, or the hard compound tyres which had looked pretty dire on other cars,” he told Sky Sports.
“They fitted the hards and consigned Leclerc to P6 whilst sliding all over the place.
“The Ferrari team keep it tight and support each other on these reasonably frequent errors of late, but however you paint it they somehow navigated a fast car from second and third on the grid to finish fourth and sixth.
“That was all compounded by surprisingly poor pace on the soft compound tyres on a cool day with constant spots of rain around, but the medium/medium strategy pitting for the second time a little over half distance made no sense.”
