Sebastian Vettel has urged those outside Ferrari not to jump to conclusions about his relationship with the team based on his recent pit-to-car radio messages.
Ferrari has already decided to replace Vettel with Carlos Sainz in 2021 and a string of underwhelming performances this season has led to apparent tensions between team and driver.
At the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone, Vettel questioned Ferrari’s race strategy over team radio, telling his engineer “you’ve messed up”. Just one week later at the Spanish Grand Prix he chastised the team again when there was a misunderstanding over whether he would attempt a one-stop strategy or a two-stop.
A one-stop, which is ultimately what Vettel went for, required him to nurse his tyres to the end of the race, but when he initially suggested the idea his engineer told him to push ahead of a second pit stop.
The following radio conversation played out a few laps later when the pit wall changed its mind.
Ferrari: “What do you think about going to the end with these tyres?”
Vettel: “Oh, for f—‘s sake. I asked you this before. Now I have been pushing for three laps.”
Ferrari: “Yeah, I understand. We are just checking.”
Vettel: “It depends, yeah. It depends how many laps to go…”
Ferrari: “Sixteen laps and we think you will be five laps short”
Vettel: “What’s the pace of the others that have stopped?”
Ferrari: “1:22.6”
Vettel: “OK, here’s the task for you. If they do 1:22.6 to the end, then what do U have to do to stay ahead?”
Ferrari: “I’ll come back to you…”
Ferrari: “A 1:23.4 to 1:23.5 to the end”
Vettel: “I can do, I can do that”
Immediately after the race Vettel, who finished seventh in Spain thanks to the one-stop strategy, explained why getting an answer was critical to his race. But speaking in a press conference later in the evening, he said people outside the team should not draw conclusions about his relationship with the team from the heated radio exchange.
“I think it’s normal to communicate,” he said. “I think it’s very weird for you to judge because you don’t get all the radio transmissions.
“I think it’s very difficult for you to know what is being said and to get the full picture. I think it was nothing else outstanding today.
“It’s a lot about managing the tyre here and as I said we did the decision and we took to it.”
Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto added: “I think that communicating is important, with the drivers, something that we decided together with the drivers that we should be open as we can. Sometimes questioning doesn’t mean that it’s a misunderstanding.
“I think questioning ourselves by communicating is important finally to get the right choice. I felt that the last few races we made the right choice, sometimes lucky as Seb said but at least we came to the choice because we are communicating.
“To be open on the radio, when you’re in the midfield, sometimes it’s difficult but just making sure at least just by questioning, again, we make the proper decision.”