Mattia Binotto gave an irritated response when questioned once again about Ferrari race strategy following another apparent error at the British Grand Prix.
While Ferrari will be delighted that Carlos Sainz won the race, his first victory in Formula 1, his team-mate Charles Leclerc appeared furious after the race at Silverstone. He finished fourth, but was leading the race until a late safety car bunched up the pack before a final sprint to the finish.
There appeared to be time to call the Monegasque in for new tyres before he passed the entrance to the pit lane, but the team decided against it. But team-mate Sainz pitted for soft tyres, while Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton also came in for fresh rubber.
And those three drivers all crossed the line ahead of Leclerc, despite his best efforts to hold onto a podium spot in what proved to be a thrilling finale. Afterwards, he cut a frustrated figure and appeared to get a telling off from his finger-wagging team chief Binotto.
Some F1 pundits and fans have questioned Ferrari's ability to make the correct in-race strategy calls, following this latest seemingly poor decision. It comes after Leclerc lost the lead at the Monaco Grand Prix as the team tried a double-stack pit stop – but botched the timing as the 24-year-old fell from first to fourth.
Asked if he had a response to critics on the issue, Binotto said: "What would they have done differently? I think the decision we took was the right one, the proper one, each single time. Should we have stopped at the safety car is maybe the only one we are questioning, I think.
"If we would have stopped him, maybe the others would have stayed out and he would have maybe been fourth on soft tyres. On the other side, would he have been able to recover the position? Not sure. I think obviously with hindsight it's easy to say we could have done [something] differently."
Binotto also moved quickly to dispel suggestions of animosity within the team, after Sky Sports cameras caught the Ferrari chief appearing to give an angry Leclerc a dressing down in the pits after the race. But the Italian claimed: "It was simply to tell him 'I understand your disappointment, but you did a fantastic race today'.
"He was fighting at the start, and fighting later on when he was not on the softs. The way he was driving there, protecting the position, was amazing. So being happy is difficult, but staying calm and positive is important."
