Former Ferrari race engineer Rob Smedley believes the Scuderia should make a strong and controversial decision: fully support Lewis Hamilton in the fight for the championship.
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After Ferrari’s encouraging weekend at the British Grand Prix, Smedley considers that the Italian team can no longer afford to let Hamilton and Charles Leclerc take points off each other if they want to beat Mercedes.
Hamilton’s podium at Silverstone allowed the seven-time world champion to come back to just 32 points behind the championship leader, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who did not score. Despite his victory, Leclerc remains 39 points behind his teammate and 71 points behind Antonelli.
With Mercedes having won seven of the first nine races of the season, Smedley believes Ferrari must now put strategy before feelings.
“The only chance” for Ferrari
Asked on the High Performance Racing podcast, Smedley even suggested that Ferrari should have considered swapping their drivers’ positions at the British Grand Prix: “I am 100% in agreement with that”, Smedley replied when asked if Ferrari should have swapped Hamilton and Leclerc’s positions on track.
The former Scuderia engineer admits, however, that such a strategy goes against his usual beliefs. But according to him, the current situation demands a radical approach: “I am going against my own logic and saying that I think such an extreme decision actually represents Ferrari’s only chance to win this world championship.”
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“If Ferrari simply tries to beat Mercedes in terms of car performance, while letting its drivers fight each other when there is such a big gap in the championship between Lewis and Charles, the chances of winning the drivers’ title decrease significantly, he observes. Even if it goes against my logic, there are still too many variables. Normally, why make such a decision? But I think it is the one and only strategy Ferrari has to allow Lewis to win this world championship.”
Ferrari faces a delicate choice
Since the start of the season, Ferrari has avoided giving orders favoring one of its drivers, allowing Hamilton and Leclerc to fight freely. However, Smedley thinks this equal treatment could quickly become a handicap in the fight against Mercedes.
Such a decision would not be entirely foreign to Ferrari’s history. During Michael Schumacher’s years of dominance, the Scuderia did not hesitate to use team orders when they could serve its main objective: winning championships. The stakes are considerable for Ferrari, which has been waiting for a world title since the constructors’ championship in 2008. Kimi Räikkönen remains the last driver to have won the championship under the Scuderia colors, in 2007.
With Hamilton now better placed than Leclerc in the standings, Smedley believes Ferrari faces a decisive choice: continue to treat its two drivers equally or make the radical decision to bet everything on the seven-time world champion.
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