Sebastian Vettel says Ferrari’s strategy at Formula 1’s 70th Anniversary Grand Prix “didn’t make any sense” as he finished outside of the points.
Vettel lined up from 11th position on the Hard tyre though compromised his prospects when he spun through Abbey on the opening lap.
Vettel ran a 22-lap stint on Hards and pitted for more Hards, but after only 11 laps returned to the pit lane to fit Mediums, which remained on the SF1000 for the last 19 laps.
Vettel questioned the strategy to his engineer after making his second stop and post-race explained his thoughts.
“We spoke this morning and said there was no point pitting knowing that we will run into traffic and that’s exactly what we did,” he told broadcasters after the race.
“We went also onto a Hard tyre, which we then only had on for 10 laps, probably not even that, so it didn’t make any sense.
“I mean why would you put the Hard for 10 laps and put the Medium for 20 laps? So I was running out of tyres towards the end so we spoke about exactly that.
“Not I guess not the best work we all could have done today.”
Vettel eventually classified 12th in the race and remains 13th in the standings, on 10 points.
“Something is there that I’m missing so I’m not sure what it is, nevertheless I try to get out of bed and do as best as I can, for sure today we could have been higher up,” he said.
“For my side with the spin I’m not sure what happened there, but also with strategy we could have recovered better.
“I think the main difference is we don’t have clean races from where we start.”
Would it be too much to ask of Mr. Vettel to qualify a bit better so as not to be in the thick of the pack on the opening laps? And, why didn’t he immediately pit to replace the damaged tires on his car after his spin? Can’t he construct a two stop strategy on the fly?