In Zandvoort, Ferrari again gave its fans unpleasant experiences, partly because of the episode with the prolonged pit stop of Carlos Sainz, for which the team was not ready. Italian journalist Leo Turini writes bitterly about the results of the weekend, as he thinks back to the events of 23 years ago.
Then, at the European Grand Prix held at the Nürburgring, during Eddie Irvine’s pit stop, Scuderia’s mechanics also carried only three of the four wheels to the pit lane. Admittedly, the difference is that the race was held on a track that dried up after the rain, and the Irishman decided to switch to slicks early on, but his mechanics didn’t have time to orient themselves, so the pit stop lasted 28 seconds.
And another thing: before that race, Mika Hakkinen and Eddie Irvine were tied on points and then the Finn took the lead in the individual standings and became world champion for the second time at the end of the season.
Of course I remembered that famous, or rather infamous episode that took place at the Nürburgring in 1999. Then, as now, a wheel mysteriously got lost. However, all this has long since become folklore and Carlos Sainz is not Eddie Irvine and, of course, he is not now fighting for the championship win.
But unfortunately we have to start with this episode – it really upset me.
Let me remind you that I have been lucky in that I personally know people who work in the Ferrari team. And I know they are fully committed to their cause, so I can imagine how everyone is going through what happened right now. When stories like this happen, there’s no excuse and there can’t be.
If a team loses the correct steering wheel somewhere, it is evidence of outright sloppiness, an example of negligent work attitude, which is always bad.
Because if you can’t be the best on the track – and Ferrari is far from being that way – you should at least try to be the best at everything else. Otherwise you will not see any victories.
Everything else that has happened at Zandvoort has been due to the loss of competitiveness, and I can’t help but think that this is due to FIA Technical Guideline No 39. Mattia Binotto denies everything but it is clear that there are some abnormal phenomena occur. In fact, they have already happened.
We must add that one should not expect high results from Ferrari in Monza either. It has been clear for some time that F1-75 lacks speed on the straights, and moreover, the Italian Grand Prix is a classic race with one pit stop, and since the rubber of the most difficult compositions will be used there, Leclerc and Sainz are guaranteed in the problems.
As for Max Verstappen, I have to reiterate that he is a fantastic racer. Point.
As for Mercedes, I will say that this team has clearly improved, at least compared to Ferrari, and this happened right after the entry into force of Directive No 39.
The tactic they used in the Netherlands can be compared to the famous story when Ferrari chose tires of different compounds for their racers on the last stretch of the distance at Silverstone, after which Sainz took the victory.
That’s just the Mercedes driver in Zandvoort who still couldn’t win the Grand Prix.
Source: F1 News
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
