Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur says the Scuderia would have been "stupid" not to impose team orders and let its drivers fight each other in last weekend's Canadian Grand Prix.
Given Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz's relatively lowly starting positions in P10 and P11, Ferrari opted to put the pair on a one-stop strategy when they moved up to fourth and fifth respectively as a result of not pitting under the early Safety Car period.
But to uphold their momentum in the race, Sainz was told not to attack Leclerc but to work with his teammate to ensure they had the best chance of keeping their immediate pursuers at bay.
Vasseur insisted the call was not a display of favouritism towards Leclerc.
©Ferrari
"No, it wasn’t that we wanted to protect someone, it was just strategy at this stage of the race was to push and to avoid losing time fighting together," he explained.
"We were trying to extend to create the gap to Ocon and Norris perhaps, I don’t know [actually it was Perez and Ocon]. To fight together and to lose time would’ve been stupid."
Vasseur admitted that Ferrari's decision – fueled by Leclerc and Sainz's comments – not to pit its drivers under the Safety Car had been a gamble, albeit one that worked out.
"You always have some hesitation but what is quite obvious is that most of them told us that the pace was much better for them, when they were stuck in the traffic the potential was there," he said.
"They said ‘just give us clean air’. The best way to do it was to not pit.
"For sure it’s kind of a gamble because if you have another Safety Car 18 laps later it’s a bit more difficult, but it was a good call, the best way to recover."
While Ferrari's race execution was perfect, the team's management of its qualifying session on Saturday was once again a confusing affair, especially for Leclerc who failed to make the top-ten shootout.
The Monegasque had immediately requested a set of soft tyres when he took to the track on inters at the start of Q2 as conditions were quickly improving.
But he was overruled by his team who asked him to first bank a lap on the inters. Ferrari eventually brought Leclerc in for a quick inters-to-softs turnaround, but too late relative to the now worsening track conditions.
Leclerc was left fuming after the session and publicly blasted his team for its ill-timed strategy calls and for "making life difficult" for him.
Vasseur said the team would meet on Tuesday to discuss events, but insisted there was no lingering ire on the part of Leclerc after he was explained during Ferrari's post-qualifying debrief how the team had managed his efforts.
"We have to think about what happened," explained Vasseur. "We will have a meeting to discuss about it on Tuesday to fix it.
"You can always do a better job. But it is true also that the [impression] that you have 10 seconds after qualifying is not always the best one.
"We had a good discussion with Charles. We gave him the global picture of the situation; what happened during the session, and it was much more calm."
©Ferrari
Vasseur ultimately defended Ferrari's strategy, insisting an immediate switch from inters to softs would have caused an unproductive delay.
"At this stage the rain was coming, and we wanted to put a time on the board as soon as possible," he said.
"If you pit at the end of lap one to put a set of softs on, then you have two laps to warm up the tyres and you postpone your first flying lap for five minutes. It was not the right strategy at this stage.
"I think the confusion came from the fact that he probably didn't get the global picture of the quali and so on," added the Frenchman.
"We have probably to improve some areas so that he has to put himself in our shoes sometimes.
"We can't say that we did a good job [in qualifying]. I think the pace was mega, but we finished 10/11. So, it means something went wrong."
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