“We are not a disaster” – Carlos Sainz once defended Ferrari’s strategy calls in 2022, when everyone came at the team for making the worst decisions for their racers. Since then, two years have passed by but some Scuderia critics might still claim that strategy is the biggest cause for the Maranello outfit’s downfall. Who can forget the brilliant pace that Charles Leclerc showed at the 2024 season opener in Bahrain? The Monegasque had snatched the second position by performing well in the Qualifying but still, he could not make it into the top 3 during the main race. Leclerc’s only verdict on his team’s strategy at that time was: “I’m disappointed“.

But the times have changed now and several teams have risen like phoenixes after some disappointing results at the beginning of the season. Take McLaren, for example. The papaya army could not even get Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris into the top 5 in Bahrain. But now, Lando has won the Dutch GP with a massive 22.9s margin to Max Verstappen. Ferrari’s team strategy seems to have had the same makeover that McLaren’s performance did. While Zak Brown’s squad got Lando Norris a second F1 race win in the Netherlands, Ferrari’s plans made Charles Leclerc get a podium in his first race in the second half of F1 2024.

Yesterday, at the Qualifying for the Dutch GP, Leclerc had brought a P6 start for himself. Even more upsetting news came from his teammate Carlos Sainz as the Spaniard got eliminated from Q2 with a P11 start. Thus, no one was expecting Ferrari to get anywhere close to the podiums in Max Verstappen‘s home race today. However, things took a turn for the better for Ferrari as their shrewd tactics earned Charles Leclerc a P3 finish on Sunday. The Monegasque said, “Very surprised. I’m not very often happy with P3, but with today’s race, we can be extremely happy. In the race, we found some more pace, and executed a perfect strategy.”

While the fans are now hailing Ferrari’s strategy, there was a time when they had bashed it. Then, Scuderia team boss Frederic Vasseur had turned a deaf ear to every comment as he never sacked the Ferrari strategy team–but why?

Frederic Vasseur’s move to not sack Ferrari’s strategy team pays off

Ferrari’s team principal Frederic Vasseur is one of the most experienced men to have ever led the team. The Frenchman took up Mattia Binotto’s role at the end of the 2022 season with a promise to lead it to its former glory. However, due to repeated strategy mistakes from the Maranello outfit, everyone believed Frederic Vasseur could only succeed in making Ferrari competent again by sacking the entire team in charge of race tactics. But the 56-year-old did not believe sacking a whole unit was the answer to Ferrari’s strategy woes.

Formula One F1 – Chinese Grand Prix – Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai, China – April 20, 2024 Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur during qualifying Pool via REUTERS/Andres Martinez Casares

Instead of replacing the entire Ferrari tactics team, Fred Vasseur delved deeper into what might be the problem with the team’s strategic calls. He said, “Very often, when you are speaking about strategy, it’s much more a matter of organization than just the guy who is on the pit wall. I’m trying to understand exactly what’s happened with every single mistake and what’s happened last year.” Now, Fred’s well-thought-out decision of not getting rid of the Ferrari strategy team has paid off since the same people helped Charles Leclerc pull off a miracle by scoring a podium today at the Dutch GP.

But examples of miracles in Formula 1 are few and far between. Even though Leclerc fared well in the Netherlands, it does not mean the same level of performance will get him a victory at the Monza GP next week. Thus, Ferrari needs to recoup and figure out how to improve its Qualifying performance so that it can do better at its home race next week–but do you think the Italian team can do that? Share in the comments.