Vasseur: We underestimated Leclerc’s time lost in Brazilian GP pit exit

Charles Leclerc was the first driver to pit on lap 25, 7 laps before the red flag.

While the other drivers on the grid pitted under the virtual safety car that came out a few laps later, Max Verstappen , Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly did not pit, thus changing their tyres under the red flag that came out on lap 32.

But Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur said pitting at that stage was a wise choice given the deteriorating conditions.
“It was a tough Sunday but overall we didn’t have a dramatic weekend,” Vasseur said.

“The difficulties we had were more around some of the choices that were quite difficult to predict, like the pit stops.”
“Unfortunately, at the end of the day if you stay on the track and wait for the red flag you can say it was the right decision, but if you crash you look like a fool.”

“To be honest, it’s quite difficult to manage these kinds of weekends, both from the pit wall and from the car,” he said.

Vasseur said Ferrari did not take into account the difficulty of the pit exit at Interlagos and that Leclerc lost time in the pit exit due to the current weather conditions.

“I think we underestimated the time loss coming out of the pits.”

“It was very slippery there and that’s why he lost a few tenths. That was enough to lose the position.”

“But I don’t think it made a huge difference, after all we were going to pit again on the next lap with the virtual safety car.”