"The decision is scandalous" - FIA's judgement against Ferrari at Monaco 'contradicts previous sentences', says F1 journalist

F1 journalist Roberto Chinchero described the decision made by the FIA to reject Ferrari's protests against both Red Bull drivers at the 2022 F1 Monaco Grand Prix as "scandalous". He emphasized that the same manoeuvres regarding their respective pit lane exits would previously have been sanctioned. Post the race that was won by Sergio Perez, Ferrari argued that both Red Bull drivers crossed the yellow line at the end of the pit exit and wanted it reviewed.

Chinchero told Motorsport.com:

“Both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez touched the yellow line exiting the pit lane. The two Red Bull drivers have done a manoeuvre that in the past has been sanctioned. The FIA had not even opened an investigation and only after the Ferrari complaint, the case was discussed. The decision is scandalous: the RB18 did not cross the line with all the tyres so there was no violation for the stewards. A judgment that contradicts previous sentences.”

He also stressed that Ferrari dug their own grave with their strategy at the Monaco Grand Prix, costing them an easy victory for home hero Charles Leclerc. Chinchero said:

“The Ferrari strategists today took away a victory from [Charles] Leclerc. Then they will try to analyse and understand everything, but they made a macroscopic mistake in the race management. What must make Ferrari think is that they had a driver that was superior to anyone else all weekend and their strategic wrong choices took away the victory and even the podium from him. It was a big mistake that prevented Leclerc from winning his home race.”

With the protests rejected, Red Bull remain on top of the championship standings with a 26-point lead over the Prancing Horse.

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Ferrari admit their fault in strategies at 2022 F1 Monaco Grand Prix

Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto admitted that mistakes in the team's "judgement" with the strategies employed for Charles Leclerc at the Monaco GP cost them a race win.

As reported by f1.com, the Italian said:

“First, we need to admit, if you are leading the race and then you’re finding yourself on fourth position, we may have done something wrong. So, we certainly made mistakes in our judgement and we made mistakes in our calls. What is the process which brought us to made mistakes?”

The Italian further went on to add, saying:

“I think the first mistake was underestimating the pace of the intermediates, and the gap we had to the other cars in terms of track position. The process, I think it’s still something on which we need to look at, and we just had our briefing with drivers, we went through it, we had discussions, we tried to understand but believe me it was quite a complicated one, so it was not an obvious one, but certainly we made a mistake. And I think we made a mistake as well because we should have called him [Charles Leclerc] earlier, at least a lap early, or if not as we did we should have stayed out and simply stayed on the extreme wet, taking I think the [lead] position, and then maybe switching directly onto the dries.”

As a result of these mistakes, Leclerc finished the race in fourth, outside the podium places.