Quote:
Originally Posted by ascarracinguk
Alternately Vettel on a faster tyre shouldn’t have been 10 seconds ahead of Bottas.
Ferrari AND Vettel didn’t do a good enough job this weekend
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Vettel had to make the tyre last longer than even Pirelli thought it would last. He wasn't further ahead because he had to slow down so as not to destroy the tyre and need another pit stop. Once Ferrari made the gamble to put him on that and he ended up in third, the least damaging thing he could've done was to slow right down to avoid another stop. The only other option was to take all the life out of the tyre trying to pass the cars in front, only to make a pit stop and end up behind anyway. No matter what Vettel did at that point, third was going to be the best result, and the safest way of achieving that is to slow down, avoid other cars and avoid the next pit stop.
Bottas had the same tyres available to him. If Vettel had the ability to be further up the road due to a faster tyre, then everybody else also had that ability. Nobody else was in that situation because it was a crap strategy. Bottas was a good minute behind Lewis - so even if you ignore Vettel, you have to be asking why Bottas was so far back. This is exactly the situation where he should be taking points from Ferrari - although they do a good job of that themselves.
Vettel didn't do a good job, but nobody could've done anything different after that gamble failed.