GPR -A wrote: ↑25 Sep 2019, 03:28
Ferrari DID NOT favor Vettel, it was tyre cliff issue with Leclerc that cheated everyone at Ferrari.
VET did 1.56,992 on his inlap (lap19) and LEC did 1.57,053 on his inlap (lap20)
That's 0,061 difference with one lap older tyres. So Tyres going over the cliff doesn't stand. They did the same inlap and VET was 2.3sec behind HAM at the time. It wasn't like HAM was delaying him or something.
They both where told very late into their inlap that they where boxing.
On VET it was logical. They told him a few corners before pit entry. You don't want to expose your self to the others. Everybody is listening.
On LEC i don't get it. He was told Box mode, Box mode like 1min 5 sec after he crossed the line for his final lap.
There was no reason for Ferrari not to tell him box mode, push now, the moment VET entered the pits.
But all its irrelevant. It wasn't a tyre cliff. It was just that the undercut was too big.
When you are 3.5sec in front of VET and you both do the same inlap time. Then its easy to understand that the outlap of VET, produced a bigger undercut from what was expected.
It wasn't LEC fault, it wasn't VET fault either to do such a great outlap.
We all know that who ever pits first, has the advantage of the undercut in most cases. That's why the leading car usually pits first. Because its the preferable strategy and when margins are so small they usually give it to the leading car. Its more fair that way.
I understand Ferrari decision to try to undercut HAM for the 1-2 result and to protect VET from VES undercutting them. (
But imagine if Mercedes had pitted HAM in the same lap with VET and VES. HAM undercuts LEC and bye bye win. It was a risk. As much as they wanted to protect VET from VES they needed to protect LEC from HAM also)
But in doing so, they did favor VET because the gave him the preferable strategy, while not being the leading Ferrari, and they gave him the chance to try and produce such a great outlap to undercut both HAM and LEC.
It wasn't a tyre cliff, it was just circumstances.