Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur says the team simply made “the wrong call” as he explained why they gambled on keeping Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc on slick tyres longer than their rivals in the late rain-hit stages of the Australian Grand Prix.
Leclerc and Hamilton were running sixth and eighth respectively when a big late-race downpour started to hit parts of the Albert Park track with 13 laps to go.
The leading McLarens both soon ran off track – with Oscar Piastri then spinning off completely – at the end of lap 44 which was enough for race leader Lando Norris to head straight for the pit lane and change to intermediate tyres.
Max Verstappen inherited the lead by staying out, but then, as the rain intensified and with the world champion having to tiptoe around the track, Red Bull called him in to change tyres two laps later.
McLaren driver Oscar Piastri ran wide ending up on the grass, leaving him to rejoin in last place!
Ferrari, though, kept their drivers out even longer until lap 47, by which time the Safety Car had been called for crashes for Gabriel Bortoleto (inters) and Liam Lawson (slicks).
By then Hamilton and Leclerc, who himself had spun on lap 44, were running second and third in the queue behind the intermediate-shod Norris. But despite the gained track position, Ferrari decided the conditions meant they had no choice but to pit for intermediates too ahead of the race restart, a move which dropped the drivers down to ninth and 10th.
The best of the action from the first race of the 2025 Formula One season at the Australian Grand Prix.
But why the gamble in the first place?
“It was a strange situation because sector one and two were still dry and sector three was completely wet and it was a kind of a bet I think that Red Bull and us, we bet on the fact that we have to stay on track and to wait for the last part of the race with slicks,” said Vasseur to reporters in Melbourne.
“When Mercedes and McLaren, but McLaren it’s also because they went out that they pitted two laps before.
“We made the wrong call because I think the best option was to pit the same lap as Max and we made the wrong call at this stage.”
Did Ferrari keep their drivers informed enough about rain?
After rejoining the track in ninth place, Hamilton said on team radio to new race engineer Riccardo Adami: “I thought you said it wasn’t going to rain much? We just missed a big opportunity there.”
Leclerc, though, was heard being told by his race engineer about the impending arrival of the high-intensity “class three” rain.
Lewis Hamilton speaks after his opening race as a Ferrari driver, finishing 10th at the Australian Grand Prix.
Asked about the apparent conflicting messages between the two cars, Vasseur said: “Yes, but this is very difficult that we don’t have a sensor for the rain, it means that it’s more a feeling, it’s what we can see on the screen, what we can have on the radar, it’s true from corner to corner.
“I think we were all surprised by the quantity of rain at this stage of the race, McLaren first, and now we did debate to stay on track with the slicks and to survive, but it was the wrong call.”
The F1 circus heads straight to Shanghai this week for the first Sprint weekend of the season at the Chinese GP, with coverage starting on Friday live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – No contract, cancel anytime
