Ferrari’s decision to start on soft tires for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia did not unfold as the team had hoped. Nevertheless, Ralf Schumacher considered the decision understandable given the conditions faced before the race.
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc lost positions at the very start of the race, but managed to claw back some ground over the laps. Hamilton, who had qualified second, finished on the podium after benefiting from a chain of events and from the periods of the Safety Car.
For Schumacher, the long delay before the start carried significant weight in the decision. With drivers and teams waiting for a period longer than usual, it became harder to predict how the track would evolve.
“Of course the driver is also involved in this decision. But the problem is that normally the driver goes out on track and the interval between that and the start might not be so extreme.”
The former German driver also said he would have made the same choice as Hamilton. The high temperatures suggested that the asphalt could dry quickly, making slick tires an interesting option. Choosing intermediates could, on the other hand, mean an extra pit stop when the track was ready for dry-weather tires.
“As a driver, after all that waiting, I would have made the same decision as Hamilton. You really expect the track to dry much, much faster at those temperatures, and then you would have to make an extra pit stop. It did not happen, but that was certainly also due to the fact that they could only see the straight, and it already looked very dry.”
The very split of the grid shows how hard it was to make a decision at that moment. According to Frederic Vasseur, about half the drivers opted for slick tires, while the other half started on intermediate tires. The Ferrari boss, therefore, also believed there were arguments for both sides.
The teams did not have the opportunity to test the track under the exact conditions of the start and had to make the decision based on the information available. Ferrari bet that the circuit would dry quickly, but that did not happen at the expected speed.
Vasseur admitted after the race that intermediates would have been the better choice. Still, the Ferrari chief defended the strategy, since the team made the decision based on the scenario it faced.
