F1 Russian Grand Prix, 2019: 5 Talking Points

#2 Intra-team strategy battle in Ferrari

Ferrari tried and failed to employ team orders

Sebastian Vettel had a stellar start off the starting grid. The German was leading the race in the blink of an eye, already leaving everyone behind as he got past Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton by the time he reached Turn 2.

Remaining at the front of the pack was easy with the race pace that Vettel displayed, but soon requests from his team to swap positions started flowing in. A tactic decided previously, probably during the team brief, was to switch around the two red cars in exactly this situation.

Charles Leclerc quickly went on the radio to express his disapproval for not having been let back ahead of his teammate. Vettel, on the other hand, stated that he was faster than the Monegasque driver and later even stopped responding to his team.

This cold war resulted in Ferrari pitting Leclerc earlier to successfully administer an undercut. Unfortunately for the Prancing Horse team, once the Sebastian exited the pits after his tyre change, an MGU-K related problem made itself known cutting short his race.