'Emotions run high at Ferrari, but F1 needs a methodical approach' — Johnny Herbert

The ‘three wheels on my wagon’ moment for Carlos Sainz Jr during his pitstop at Zandvoort summed up the state of Ferrari right now. Shades of Eddie Irvine at the Nürburgring in 1999, but you don’t expect such things to happen these days.

Ferrari’s team has delivered the hardware this year – the F1-75 is fundamentally a quick Formula 1 car, with a different aerodynamic concept to Red Bull, and the engine isn’t bad. The car qualified on pole at Monza and Charles Leclerc was in a position to win the race. The drivers deliver most of the time too, even if Leclerc has made mistakes.

The main weakness has been strategy, making questionable and plain wrong calls under pressure. I like team principal Mattia Binotto and he is very popular in the paddock. He comes across well in many respects, and he’s been very protective of his team when it comes to the strategy misfires. But those issues have now ruled Ferrari out of the championship. Such mistakes don’t happen as often at other teams. At the beginning of the season, when Leclerc won two of the first three races, everything seemed to be running smoothly, but as soon as the pressure rose the mistakes crept it. A shame for us as fans because we were looking forward to the battle between Charles and Max Verstappen, but that’s petered out.

As soon as the pressure rose, the mistakes crept in at Ferrari

At Monza the strategy call to run Charles on two stops didn’t work out, again. It put him behind Max and as usual Red Bull made the right call during the virtual safety car by sticking to its plan. For Ferrari the strategy problems need to be sorted fast, and they haven’t been. Binotto is the man who must sort it out and the pressure is on.  The summer break seemed a prime time to make a change, perhaps revise the strategy group. But it didn’t happen.

Do they need to recruit from outside the team? If they have got the right personnel already you would think they’d already have them in the right positions… But it becomes difficult when you recruit because the good people at the likes of Red Bull and Mercedes tend to be tied into long-term contracts. Fingers crossed Ferrari has people it can bring through – and perhaps a little faster. It’s a horrible situation for Binotto, especially when things keep going wrong – especially at Monza, at home, when the team had changed its colours to mark Ferrari’s 75th anniversary.

In the end it all comes back to Binotto, so of course there are questions about his future. A good technical director, which Binotto was, doesn’t necessarily make a good team principal. But he is the one who must turn fortunes around. That responsibility at the top is part and parcel of Ferrari and always has been.  So what are the specific problems? Binotto will surely be aware of what needs to be addressed. The teams rely on software, on algorithms, to create strategies and then a human being makes the final call. Maybe the software is the problem. I often think, and this isn’t a point directed only at Ferrari, so much effort goes into the numbers and staring at a laptop you wonder who is looking above the screen to see what’s going on in the real world. Sainz and the badly timed pit call when he was mid-duel at Paul Ricard was evidence of that. The radio conversations have been strange at times too, with the pitwall almost asking the drivers what the strategy should be. But the drivers must share the burden of responsibility.

Leclerc’s frustration is clear, about his own mistakes as much as the team’s, but he has to move on and raise his voice within Ferrari. I always remember Michael Schumacher, how deeply involved he was with Ross Brawn in how their teams operated. He was very influential. A driver’s power is strong because you are the one given the tools to try and deliver. I’d say the drivers’ input is equally as important as Binotto’s. My instinct is that Ferrari chairman John Elkann should give Binotto time – but the fix can’t wait until the off-season. Ferrari must be ready to attack for the title next year and the contrast to Red Bull is clear. The Milton Keynes-based team is very sharp when a call has to be made mid-race, and has been for years.

So will Binotto turn it around? Well, put it this way: I don’t think Ferrari’s team needs to be broken into pieces and rebuilt. It needs acknowledgement of the problems within, a change of mindset in how they work with the software and make the strategy calls, and then changes must be implemented. Emotions run high when it comes to Ferrari, as always. But the approach now must be methodical.