F1: Ferrari's decision to one-stop Vettel was made before race
Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene insists that the decision to have Sebastian Vettel run a one-stop strategy at Spa was based on sound data, and was taken before the race.
Ferrari has been criticized for running a long second stint on the prime tire, which ended with Vettel's tire failure with less than two laps to go.
“It was our strategy, Plan A,” he said. “I mean the main plan before the race, and we decided that at 11 a.m. this morning. Precisely. And normally when you do the strategy at that time, during the strategy meeting, it is based on data that you have in your hands.”
Arrivabene insisted that there was no risk associated with the strategy.
“When you are one and a half laps and you can see the third position on the podium and you are going to lose it suddenly, of course you are disappointed, so that is the point. But I tell you the strategy normally, even if it is aggressive, is based on clear data that you have. You are not so stupid or so crazy to take a risk for the driver if you are not reading quite well the data. Don't worry, the job was right, our job.”
He added that Pirelli knew about the strategy decision: “We have an engineer, all the teams they have an engineer from Pirelli – and what do you think that engineer is doing? I mean, he is not there to eat chewing gum. He is there to check the tires, to follow all the runs that you are doing, and to give the data to the team.”
Vettel cussed out Pirelli after his tire failure during the race
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