Race 6 - 2025 Miami Grand Prix [Miami International Autodrome]

[Nitrodaze]

Ferrari simply made a clown show out of making the wrong decision.

Hamilton never had pace over Leclerc, he could simply stay with him due to DRS. Leclerc still had more pace in dirty air, so now both drivers tires are taking abuse. The only real shot they had at catching Kimi was to never swap the first time.

Martin Brundle made a very interesting observation about this. He pointed out that Hamilton was able to catch Leclerc with faster medium tires while they were still fresh. Because they took three to five laps to decide if they should swap, the mediums were mostly spent by the time they finally swapped them. After they swapped them, Leclerc benefited from being towed along in the slipstream of Hamilton's Ferrari ahead. Much like how Sainz towed Albon to keep both Williams in the top ten and ahead of the Haas of Ocon in the previous race.

There were two qualms that Hamilton voiced during the race; firstly was that they took too long to execute the swap instruction. Secondly, that he voluntarily swapped in China when he realised that Leclerc was faster than him and expected a return of that favour.

So one observation is that Ferrari needs to be smarter to act promptly in the best interest of the team. The Ferrari strategy team should be considering the best outcome for Ferrari before considering anything else. Secondly, Leclerc was not being a team player on this occasion. He was only thinking about himself and not the team. If he were, he would have facilitated the swap and let Hamilton tow him along to Antonelli, which may have given both Ferrari a chance to sneak past Antonelli to produce a better result for the team. Clearly, Hamilton on mediums was considerably faster than Antonelli on old Hards.

One of LeClerc's weak points is that he is not capable of seeing the bigger picture during race conditions. This was one of those things that put Sainz above him when it came to in-race intelligence. Most noticeable in the 2023 and 2024 seasons, where Sainz in red was always able to outthink LeClerc to finish ahead even when he starts the race behind him.

What we saw was ugly from all concerned? And Vasseur did not have a handle on the situation for some reason.

Ferrari's problems seem set to deepen as they are failing to work as a cohesive team. Lacking team synergy while having a troublesome car is a recipe for disappointment come the end of the season. I personally, think the team needs a refresh. Time to swap out some of the old faces and bring in some fresher younger ones.

[airshifter]

Martin Brundle made a very interesting observation about this. He pointed out that Hamilton was able to catch Leclerc with faster medium tires while they were still fresh. Because they took three to five laps to decide if they should swap, the mediums were mostly spent by the time they finally swapped them. After they swapped them, Leclerc benefited from being towed along in the slipstream of Hamilton's Ferrari ahead. Much like how Sainz towed Albon to keep both Williams in the top ten and ahead of the Haas of Ocon in the previous race.

There were two qualms that Hamilton voiced during the race; firstly was that they took too long to execute the swap instruction. Secondly, that he voluntarily swapped in China when he realised that Leclerc was faster than him and expected a return of that favour.

So one observation is that Ferrari needs to be smarter to act promptly in the best interest of the team. The Ferrari strategy team should be considering the best outcome for Ferrari before considering anything else. Secondly, Leclerc was not being a team player on this occasion. He was only thinking about himself and not the team. If he were, he would have facilitated the swap and let Hamilton tow him along to Antonelli, which may have given both Ferrari a chance to sneak past Antonelli to produce a better result for the team. Clearly, Hamilton on mediums was considerably faster than Antonelli on old Hards.

One of LeClerc's weak points is that he is not capable of seeing the bigger picture during race conditions. This was one of those things that put Sainz above him when it came to in-race intelligence. Most noticeable in the 2023 and 2024 seasons, where Sainz in red was always able to outthink LeClerc to finish ahead even when he starts the race behind him.

What we saw was ugly from all concerned? And Vasseur did not have a handle on the situation for some reason.

Ferrari's problems seem set to deepen as they are failing to work as a cohesive team. Lacking team synergy while having a troublesome car is a recipe for disappointment come the end of the season. I personally, think the team needs a refresh. Time to swap out some of the old faces and bring in some fresher younger ones.

Commentators or others can come up with any alternate reality theory they want, but the data doesn't lie.

Hamilton was quick on his out lap, but with the softer tires and pitting first that was expected. And a part of the "lap time" was the fact that the VSC ended when Leclerc was still coming out of the pits, so his VSC advantage wasn't as complete. Cue the second VSC, and Hamilton managed to close to within DRS under VSC, and had not been there before.

When Leclerc passed Sainz, the next timing sector showed Hamilton less than .25 behind. That grew to almost 9/10ths through the lap. As the data clearly shows, Leclerc was faster for the next two laps, even though Hamilton was still in DRS range. On the third lap Lewis was faster.... all of 1/1000th of a second. During those 4 laps, Lewis made no less than 5 radio calls wanting the swap, even though he was at risk of dropping out of DRS range. So when the swap took place, the data Ferrari had was that Leclerc was quicker 2 of the 3 laps, on tires slower to come into temp, running in a lower power deployment mode. Far from beind towed by Hamilton, Leclerc dropped back almost a second and a half and was out of DRS range. A couple laps later Charles started taking time out of Lewis again, probably when his tires were up to temp. He pulled himself back into DRS range without much trouble, and was then smart enough to not push up too close and eat his tires, as well as using alternate lines to avoid the dirty air from ahead at times. He continued to be faster back through the second swap, and until race end. In the last four laps he gapped Lewis by over 2 seconds, and reeled Kimi in by a second.

As for Leclerc not being a team player? Rubbish if you ask me. The team made a single call and asked Charles to swap, and he swapped. He even suggested not swapping back stating it would cost the team time as he was still thinking they were catching Antonelli quicker. Though Lewis gave up a place in China, he was obviously slower, struggling with the car, and really just avoiding the team having to do it later. In the case of Miami Charles was in fact quicker, so he had no reason to volunteer to yield to a car struggling to stay in DRS. But when the team asked just once, he swapped.

I fully agree Ferrari need to act quicker and be smarter in their decisions and how they impact the whole team. But in this case, they set a precedent of letter the slower car through in hopes it would work. They simply caved, even though on the previous lap they had instructed Lewis to stay in DRS to open the gap to Sainz. And basic communications to the drivers are not respected, enforced, or punished when not. As I said in the other post, if the drivers just followe pit wall direction, then pit wall becomes accountable for problems they create.