Steiner says Ferrari’s reluctance to admit strategy errors is hurting F1 performance

Guenther Steiner says Ferrari’s reluctance to admit when a strategy call is wrong is hurting its on-track performance. The former Haas team principal points to the team’s decisions in the wet Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.

On The Red Flags Podcast, Steiner cited Ferrari’s choice to start on soft slicks and its hesitation to switch promptly to intermediates, as McLaren did with Oscar Piastri. He argued Ferrari was reluctant to change course because that would mean conceding its first call was wrong, contrasting this with what he described as McLaren’s readiness to correct a mistake.

Charles Leclerc offered a different perspective after the race. He said he was aligned with Ferrari’s decision and regarded the tyre call as a close one. The surface looked dry, he said, but there was more water in the tarmac’s holes than he thought most had expected. He added that splitting the cars’ strategies could leave one choice very wrong and the other very good.

Hamilton, who started second on the grid, said Ferrari asked whether to pit; he advised staying out because the decision had already been made. Both Ferrari drivers fell down the order in the opening laps before recovering to finish third and fourth. Leclerc said those positions were representative of where Ferrari had hoped to finish, with Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli too strong. George Russell’s retirement with five laps left, caused by a power-unit failure on his Mercedes, helped Ferrari’s recovery. Hamilton said he was grateful for the podium but still wondered what he might have achieved had he started on intermediates.