The elements Ferrari must resolve to first save face, then win championships

OPINION: Ferrari's Formula 1 title hopes look all but over after another strategic blunder in last week's Hungarian Grand Prix denied Charles Leclerc the chance to fight for victory, while handing it to chief rival Max Verstappen. The Scuderia now faces intense scrutiny over what it must now do to finally become a genuine factor in championship battles

Matt Kew Aug 3, 2022, 9:15 AM

Upd: Aug 3, 2022, 4:55 PM

When do we start saying it’s all over? That any remaining hope of Charles Leclerc taking the 2022 Formula 1 title battle with Max Verstappen down to the wire has been snuffed out. Perhaps lap 39 of the Hungarian Grand Prix last weekend was a good place to call time. That’s when Ferrari committed its latest strategy shocker and pitted Leclerc bafflingly for a set of hard tyres that were about as suited to the dry conditions as “wets”, so reckoned Lando Norris.

As a result, Leclerc finished sixth in a race won by Verstappen, when the red machine had lined up on the grid in third and the Red Bull 10th. This was without rain throwing a curveball or a full-blown safety car bunching the pack - just two virtual safety cars, which maintain the intervals. For good measure, Verstappen also spun and was nursing a poorly clutch and upshifts.

Share Or Save This Story

Author Matt Kew

Matt Kew is Autosport’s F1 Editor, a role he has held since March 2022 following stints covering Formula E, Extreme E and the British Touring Car Championship.

Matt joined Autosport in 2018 to work predominantly on the magazine, but his relentless quoting of Alan Partridge meant office colleagues soon thought he would be better-suited to increased field work.

Needless to say, Matt had the last laugh when he won the Motorsport UK Young Journalist of the Year Award in 2019.

His interest in motorsport was sparked by regular trips to watch ASCAR crash around Rockingham’s banked oval.

Matt read politics and philosophy at the University of Sheffield - receiving first-class honours for his dissertation assessing the lack of female participation in top-tier motor racing.

He covered a wide variety of national race and rally meetings for Autosport as a freelancer before joining full-time. His best efforts to argue the merits of historic racing are undone by a questionable taste in music and James Bond actors.