Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur says Charles Leclerc’s very late call for a pit stop at the end of the opening lap of the 2023 Dutch GP, when the rain started to fall, was the “right one”, despite the Monegasque being stationary in his pit box for over seven seconds.
Photo Credit: Scuderia Ferrari
Leclerc dived into the pits at the end of the first in order to change his soft compound tyres for a set of intermediates as the rain increasingly hit the Zandvoort circuit, but it was such a late call the tyres weren’t ready for the Monegasque driver, and he had to wait for over seven seconds in his pit box whilst his mechanics were still empty-handed.
Speaking to selected media after the race, Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur defended the late call from his driver – who told his team of his decision to pit already in the pit lane – suggesting that despite the seemingly big time loss in the pit lane, the time he would gain by being on the right tyres for the conditions on the out lap as the rain continued to soak the circuit made it worth it:
“I think that the first [pit stop] from Charles [Leclerc] looks a bit strange from the outside, but it was a very good call from him. It was a very late call because he was in the pit lane when he told us,” he explained. “But at the end – even if he lost perhaps seven or eight seconds, I don’t know, into the pit lane – it was the good one.
“If you have a look, I think that [Pierre] Gasly also did a good step forward with this kind of call. It was the good choice to stop [at the end of] lap one.”
The 55-year-old explained that despite the time loss whilst the mechanics got the correct tyres ready, the net gain from the move was clear – Leclerc entered the pits in ninth place and when all the frontrunners stopped, he rejoined in fifth place, just behind previous race leader Max Verstappen, and cited how being lower down on the field would have been helpful in these circumstances, as it proved for Gasly:
“Because also the rain [hit the circuit] into the last corner and he decided to pit. It was a very late call but again I think it was the right decision because after the pit stop he was in a much better position than before even with the six, seven seconds that we lost into the pit lane. It was the good call.
“For sure if you are ten seconds behind or five seconds behind [at that point], you do the call and it’s much easier [to get the tyres ready].
“But I don’t have [anything] to complain about this. It was the right call.”
Despite this move bringing Leclerc up the order, his race would eventually take a downturn after contact with Lando Norris’ McLaren broke the endplate on the right side of his front wing. The team changed his front wing at the next stop, he continued to lose significant pace and at one point was down to the last positions, battling with AlphaTauri rookie stand-in Liam Lawson and losing out.
Vasseur explained that this was down to his broken endplate hitting the floor of his SF-23 when it came off, causing further, irreparable at pit stops damage, which meant he had to retire from the race on lap 42.
“He damaged the right [front wing] endplates and the end plate went into the floor and damaged the bottom of the floor,” explained Vasseur.
There were some radio conversations as the Monegasque incurred his damage, with his team-mate Carlos Sainz fast approaching and demanding not to be held up behind his ailing team-mate. Vasseur said the decision to swap the cars around was made swiftly and “not an issue at all” in terms of causing tension between the two drivers:
“We have to stop [with this],” he said about potential driver tension at the Scuderia. “I think as a team, we managed more than well the situation. Carlos [caught] up [to] Charles and he stayed out for a lap behind him, and [then] we asked them to swap and Charles swapped directly. It was very well managed and it’s not an issue at all.”
