Ferrari's strategy of 'putting pressure' on Max Verstappen at the start of 2022 F1 Austrian GP paid off, says Mattia Binotto

Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto lauded his team's strategy calls that put Max Verstappen under considerable pressure during the 2022 F1 Austrian GP.

After being thoroughly dominated during the second Sprint race of the season, the Scuderia got its affairs in order during the 71-lap event last Sunday.

Knowing it has a faster car around the Red Bull Ring, Ferrari allowed Verstappen to stop for fresh tires before it during both its pit stops, calling Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in as a reactionary measure to the Dutchman.

Leclerc was able to overtake Red Bull's reigning world champion thrice in the race en route to his first win since the 2022 F1 Australian GP. Sainz could also have been on the podium ahead of Verstappen had he not suffered a catastrophic engine failure in the latter stages of the race.

Speaking in an interview after the race, Mattia Binotto admitted that he was nervous towards the end of the race when Charles Leclerc was heard reporting throttle pedal issues with his Ferrari F1-75. The Italian said:

“Honestly, I don’t know. I heard about it. We looked at the data but we need to wait for the car. Try to work what was it, was it mechanical? Myself? I stopped watching the race at that time. I was not [even looking at the timing screens]. [I was] looking around. Certainly very happy because now it’s two wins in a row at Silverstone and now here in Austria.”

Binotto went on to add:

“The drivers did a fantastic job, both of them. They were doing very well. They put pressure on Max at the start of the race which I think was the difference compared to yesterday in the Sprint race. So we decided that the best was trying to keep pressure on him, force him somehow to go fast and somehow try to wear their own tyres and I think it worked well. We put pressure on Red Bull and that was what we were hoping for.”

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Ferrari is a united team, claims Charles Leclerc after rumors of a rift emerged following 2022 F1 British GP

Charles Leclerc quashed all rumors, suggesting that there was a rift in the Ferrari camp after Carlos Sainz claimed his maiden F1 win last week at Silverstone.

The Monegasque's 2022 F1 British GP weekend did not go to plan after he missed out on a potential win owing to a baffling strategy call from Ferrari.

Leclerc felt hamstrung by Ferrari as he saw teammate Sainz take the win while he could only manage P4 despite being in the lead going into the final 10 laps of the race.

Matters were only made worse post-race when the broadcast cameras caught the 24-year-old in conversation with Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto, with neither individual looking particularly comfortable.

Speaking to the media ahead of the 2022 F1 Austrian GP this weekend, Charles Leclerc nipped rumors of in-fighting in the Scuderia stables after some team members were absent from Sainz's celebration photo in the bud. He said:

“It is a shame to see all of this type of things. It is definitely not what is happening inside the team. We are a very united team, we’ve always been and it’s not these difficult races that will make it change. Were we disappointed after last weekend? I think we were because speaking about last weekend, we were one-two and we finished one-four so part of the team were disappointed. But this was definitely not the reason whatsoever for not everybody being on the picture.”

The Scuderia is second in the World Constructors' Championship standings with 303 at the halfway point of the 2022 season.