Formula 1: How Ferrari could have salvaged Canadian Grand Prix win

Even after the penalty that cost Sebastian Vettel victory in the Canadian Grand Prix, Ferrari still had a chance to salvage their first victory of the 2019 Formula 1 season.

Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel appeared to be well on his way to earning what would have been his first Formula 1 victory since last August’s Belgian Grand Prix in this past Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix before he was issued a five-second time penalty that hampered his chances of doing so.

On lap 48 of the 70-lap race around the 14-turn, 2.71-mile (4.361-kilometer) Circuit Gilles Villeneuve road course on Parc Jean-Drapeau in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the 31-year-old German went off the course between turns three and four with the lead and reentered the track just ahead of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton in second place.

But the race stewards deemed Vettel’s reentry onto the racing surface “unsafe”, so after he went on to win the race by 1.342 seconds over Hamilton in second place, Hamilton was officially declared the winner by 3.658 seconds over Vettel.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished the race 6.038 seconds behind Vettel in third place, meaning he was officially scored just 1.038 seconds behind him. But Ferrari “simply forgot” to tell him about Vettel’s five-second time penalty.

Here is what Binotto had to say about the matter, according to Motorsport.

"“We didn’t [tell him]. It has been a mistake from our side. We were very busy on the pit wall and simply we forgot. We should have done it, but we didn’t.”"

That said, despite the initial thought that this was yet another blunder by Ferrari to prioritize Vettel over Leclerc, Leclerc does not believe that Ferrari not giving him this information cost him a second place finish. Here is what he had to say about the matter, according to Motorsport.

"“No. Because anyway I was pushing very hard to try to catch up. I saw they were fighting and I saw they were close at least, and I saw also that we were quite quick and catching up. I was pushing hard so that if anything happened I had the opportunity to be as close as possible to do so. So no, it would not have changed my approach.”"

Fair enough.

More from Formula One

• Formula 1: Top Red Bull threat identified for 2024
• Formula 1: Why the Max Verstappen retirement obsession?
• Formula 1: Williams ‘mistake’ hints Logan Sargeant’s future
• Formula 1 awaiting key confirmation for 2024 season
• Formula 1: The ‘championship’ Max Verstappen only leads by 3 points

However, without directly prioritizing Leclerc for the sake of having him finish in second place over Vettel in third for no apparent reason, Ferrari could have still strategically utilized the running positions of both of their drivers to salvage their race and still secure what would have been their first victory since Kimi Raikkonen won the United States Grand Prix last October.

Ferrari could have realized that Vettel was not going to pull away from Hamilton by more than five seconds and that their two drivers were slated to finish in second and third regardless.

With that in mind, they could have not only told Leclerc to push harder but told Vettel to ease back to effectively serve as an obstacle for Hamilton to allow Leclerc to get up into the fight and battle with Hamilton for the victory.

Would this have cost Vettel a second place finish? Yes. Would he have even cared at that point after having been robbed of a victory? Probably not. Would it have guaranteed a Leclerc victory? Absolutely not.

But it was Ferrari’s only hope of turning a disastrous situation into what still could have been their first victory in the last 10 races, and it very well could have paid huge dividends had they gone ahead with it.

Of course, with emotions running high from Sebastian Vettel’s penalty that many Formula 1 fans still and always will believe was unjust, it makes sense that this alternate strategy wasn’t the first thing to pop into the heads of the Ferrari team members, especially considering how many strategy blunders they have already made through the first one-third of the 21-race 2019 season as it is.