Sky Sports F1's Nico Rosberg said Ferrari need to make changes and that Formula 2 and Formula 3 teams have better strategy, but Mattia Binotto has hit back; F1 heads to Italy next weekend with all sessions live on Sky Sports F1 from September 9-11
Monday 5 September 2022 11:19, UK
Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto has defended his team in response to Nico Rosberg's fierce criticism of their strategy, insisting they will not make personnel changes despite admitting their latest blunder was a "mess".
In the 14th race of a season riddled with strategy errors, Ferrari subjected Carlos Sainz to a 12-second pit-stop early in the race and then unsafely released the Spaniard later on, leading to a five-second penalty.
Speaking on Sky Sports F1 afterwards, pundit and 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg stressed the team needed to make changes and said "even Formula 2 teams or Formula 3 teams do a better job at their strategy".
"We will not change people, that's a straight answer to Rosberg," Binotto said when told of Rosberg's remarks.
"What is more important is simply the stability and making sure you're improving race by race. We have a great team, I have no doubt about that."
Ferrari did not seem ready for Sainz's stop on Lap 12 and he was kept far longer than expected in the box. Afterwards, Sergio Perez ran over the Ferrari team's wheel gun.
On the pit wall, Binotto told Sky Sports F1 the strategy was a "mess" and was down to a "very late call" to pit.
"Lewis (Hamilton) was preparing the undercut," he added later.
"It was a too late call so we had no time to react. I'm pretty sure we can improve in the future. I'm less concerned of that than the pace of the car."
Charles Leclerc eventually finished third in the race - ahead of an unlucky Hamilton after his own strategy concerns - while Sainz was eighth after his penalty cost him fifth place.
Sainz said he felt the penalty was harsh as he was only close to Fernando Alonso's Alpine after braking for a nearby McLaren mechanic.
But a disgruntled Spaniard added: "We keep costing ourselves some points and we need to see why.
"If we want to have a shot [at Max Verstappen and Red Bull] next year we need to keep improving these things and make the mistakes this year.
"Mattia Binotto keeps saying, 'no, no we don't need to make any changes, everything is going well'.
"I mean when is the day coming? It's not possible. Even Formula 2 teams or Formula 3 teams do a better job at their strategy and pit stops than Ferrari.
"You're in the pits and there's no tyre there, in a normal race. At some point they really need to start making some changes.
"Beyond that, also their car is just a little bit off the pace now, in the race especially. We saw it at Spa, we saw it again here, they're starting to lose out. So they need to make sure they keep developing that car in the right direction.
"One of the things that people often say is that Binotto is a technician. So sometimes you might suggest that you need a joint-leadership team of one being the technician and one being the business manager and people manager.
"I don't know Binotto well enough, but in any case, he needs to be making some personnel changes there, because I feel it's just going wrong too much.
"When we're commentating we're just waiting for it to happen at the moment because we just know there's a next mistake coming from Ferrari very soon, and that's not good, so they do need to make some fundamental changes in their personnel or how people are working there."
