Ferrari’s boss, Fred Vasseur, says the team simply made the “wrong call” as they explained why they played in holding Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc on smooth tires longer than their rivals in the late stages of Grand Prix Australian.
Leclerc and Hamilton were running the sixth and eighth, when a large flow of the late race began to hit parts of the Albert park with 13 laps to go.
The main mclarens both quickly left the track – with Oscar Piastri then completely rotating – at the end of the 44 lap which was enough for the Lando Norris race leader to go straight to the Pit lane and change in intermediate tires.
Max Verstappen inherited the lead by standing out, but then, while the rain intensified and with the world champion that had to climb around the track, Red Bull called it to change the tires two laps later.
Ferrari, however, kept their drivers even longer until papal 47, by that time the security machine was called for a collision for Gabriel Bortoleto (Inters) and Liam Lawson.
At that time, Hamilton and Leclerc, who themselves had spinned on lap 44, were running second and third in the intermediate Norris. But despite the dirty position of the dirty, Ferrari decided that the conditions would say that they had no choice but to take over much before the race, an action that fell down the drivers in the ninth and 10th.
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The best of the action from the first race of the Formula One season 2025 at the Australian Grand Prix.
But why gambling in the first place?
“It was a strange situation because the sector one and two were still dry and the three sector was completely wet and it was a kind of bet that I think Red Bull and we, we bet on the fact that we have to stay on the right track and wait for the last part of the slicks,” Vasseur told Melbourne.
“When Mercedes and McLaren, but McLaren is also because they turned out they set two laps ago.
“We made the wrong call because I think the best option was to make the same lap as Max and we made the wrong call at this stage.”
Did Ferrari keep their drivers informed enough for the rain?
After reuniting on the runway in the ninth place, Hamilton said to the radio the team in the new Riccardo Adam competition engineer: “I thought I told you it wouldn’t rain? We just lost a great opportunity there.”
However, Leclerc was heard by being said by his engineer for the near -intensity “Third Class” Rain.
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Lewis Hamilton speaks behind his opening race as a Ferrari driver, ending 10th in the Australian Grand Prix.
Asked about the visible conflicting messages between the two cars, Vasseur said: “Yes, but it is very difficult that we do not have a rain sensor, means that it is more of a feeling, it is what we can see on the screen, what we can have in the radar, it is true from corner to corner.
“I think we were all surprised by the amount of rain at this stage of the race, first McLaren, and now we debated to stay on the right track with slips and survive, but it was the wrong call.”
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