Ferrari crew open the way for Charles Leclerc to battle with the front-runners

The softest tire selection with the new C6 compound was used for the first time in last weekend’s European opener at Imola. The Formula 1 teams went into the seventh race of the season with a degree of uncertainty, only finding out which strategy presented the key to success during the race itself.

Ferrari opted for a two-stop strategy early on for Charles Leclerc. The Scuderia were the first of the top teams to call the Monegasque driver into the pits on lap 10.

The quick tire change paid off. From eleventh on the grid, Leclerc passed Fernando Alonso, George Russell, Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll, all of whom opted for a later stop, and found himself in the battle for the top positions surprisingly early on.

However, a late safety car allowed Leclerc’s opponents to make a time-saving pit stop, meaning that the Ferrari driver was unable to climb any higher than sixth place. Nevertheless, the 27-year-old knew exactly who he had to thank.

“They are doing an exceptional job,” said Leclerc, full of praise for his mechanics. “Pit stops are the kind of thing that we speak of a lot when things are going wrong and not so much when things are going right.”

Ferrari once again delivered on the best possible weekend for Leclerc, namely at Imola. He thanked his pit crew with a special helmet design: “In all my years with Ferrari, I did things for the team as a whole, but nothing specific for the mechanics. I was just happy to pay tribute in that way.”