Ferrari 'really handed' 2022 championship to Max Verstappen, says former world champion

Former F1 world champion Mario Andretti reckons Ferrari have handed the title to Red Bull's Max Verstappen on a platter.

Talking to the media before the Singapore GP this weekend, Andretti was full of praise for Verstappen but said that Ferrari could have done a better job this season. Andretti feels the Red Bull driver would still have been in command of the championship, but the Italian team has made things easier for him.

He said:

“(Max) has proven again, how worthy he is of the World Championship. A lot of it is thanks to Ferrari in so many ways – Ferrari have been so competitive, and they handed to him on a plate. He still would be in control, in my opinion, but it was really handed to him. It’s always great to see Ferrari come back and be able to fight, but they’ve made so many strategic mistakes on tyres and so forth – it’s unbelievable."

Andretti feels Ferrari had most of the things in order. Both drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have been capable of winning and have been competitive. The car is competitive as well. However, Ferrari's decision-making and strategy have left a lot to be desired.

“Ferrari certainly have the drivers and the car. Both Charles and Carlos are capable of winning, and the car has been consistently competitive; they’ve shown they have the pace in qualifying, the race pace, but Max and Red Bull have just been going on their merry way. Red Bull have done a phenomenal job, no question, and right now, it looks like Max will be World Champion with several races left in the season.

He added:

“There were clear mistakes made on Ferrari’s strategies. They’ve had a couple of mechanical situations, which is unfortunate – that can happen to anyone. Just that, sometimes, their choice of tyres has been really, really weird. With a car that’s so competitive, they don’t have to have a strategy that’s different from everyone else."

Verstappen (335) has a commanding 116-point lead over Ferrari's Charles Leclerc going into the last six races of the season.

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Ferrari's strategists are just not doing a good job - Mario Andretti

Mario Andretti also touched on the instances where Ferrari threw away some significant opportunities. So much so that even Charles Leclerc expressed his disappointment on the failures.

Andretti said:

“Just try to go with the same with what the others are going, and you’re going to be in good shape because they can hold their own. It seem like they just threw away a lot of opportunities, in my opinion. Even Charles expressed himself several times how disappointed he was."

He added:

“I don’t know how the situation works within the team, whether the drivers can have some more voice in their choices. I don’t know how that works. But whoever is dictating the strategy is not doing a very good job.”

It will be interesting to see if the Italian team can ring in the changes that helps them go all the way next season.