Analysis | Red Bull's masterful tactics in Monaco under the microscope

Perez puts on the attack

'Perez throws the bat in the works', said the Viaplay commentator at the moment Perez came in on lap sixteen to swap his full wets for intermediates. In retrospect, that statement proved to be correct, as it was at this point that Ferrari came under pressure and also made big mistakes.

At the time Perez went in, he was three seconds behind Sainz and over eight seconds behind Leclerc. An undercut on the intermediates was possible, but if Ferrari reacted quickly, nothing would have happened. Ferrari were possibly too fixated on Max Verstappen.

In the first lap on his intermediates Perez did not make up much time. In lap seventeen Sainz was two tenths slower and Leclerc seven tenths faster. It must be taken into account that Perez came out of the pit lane on cold tyres. Because of that lap, Ferrari thought it was better not to change to the intermediates yet. However, they could have known that this was not the case, because drivers like Pierre Gasly showed that the intermediates were much better for the current conditions.

Festival of errors in Monaco

As Ferrari postpones the decision for a lap, things go disastrously wrong. On the following lap Perez goes from a 1.32.141 to a 1.25.215 on lap eighteen. In one blow he gains almost seven seconds on Sainz and the Spaniard can no longer go in without losing a place on the Mexican. Perez was also helped by McLaren, which on that lap also took Lando Norris out from under him with a pit stop.

Where Sainz has no chance to cover Perez, you would argue that Leclerc should be able to make it, but somehow things go wrong on his in-lap. At the start of lap eighteen, Leclerc had a 6.3s lead on Sainz and just before his pit stop this had decreased to 4.7s. The question is whether Ferrari did tell Leclerc to push, as they did indicate towards Sainz. So Leclerc lost out relative to Perez on that lap by another one and a half seconds, wiping out his lead of eight seconds before Perez's pit stop.

Ferrari doesn't make that calculation in time and so Leclerc just comes in for his pit stop. Once out of the pits he comes in behind Perez on the track. Verstappen also comes in for new inters and the three of them mount an attack on Sainz who stays out on full wets. He tried to stretch it to slicks.

Second mistake by Ferrari

The choice of Ferrari to bring Leclerc in is even more remarkable when three laps later they opt for an undercut on hard tyres. On lap 21 Sainz and Leclerc are brought in. Sainz is in the lead and has a 2.5s advantage over Perez. Leclerc is behind and has a 5.0s lead on Verstappen. With an undercut, Ferrari took control, but this too went wrong.

The double pit stop of Ferrari is remarkable, but still goes quite well. Sainz is away from his mechanics after 2.5s and Leclerc's pit stop takes half a second longer. In the out-lap of the Ferrari drivers, however, things went wrong.

Staying on the intermediates for a lap longer while the Ferrari's struggled on cold hard tyres turned out to be Red Bull Racing's masterstroke. With a 1.32.589s lap, Leclerc drove the fastest out-lap of the Ferrari drivers. Sainz got stuck behind Nicolas Latifi on his way out of the pits and it is only on entering the tunnel that Sainz can pass him. With a 1.34.073 he loses one and a half seconds compared to his team mate. He lacks that one and a half seconds when Perez comes back onto the track.

The in-laps of Verstappen and Perez are very strong. Sainz and Leclerc lost a lot of ground on the cold hard tyres especially coming out of the pits. Perez has gained six seconds entering the pit lane and Verstappen over seven seconds on Leclerc. Sainz loses even more ground by being stuck behind Latifi.

Red Bull loses ground in the pit lane with a 2.6s stop for Perez and a 3.2s stop for Verstappen. The margins are minimal, but do create excitement at the pit exit. Perez and Verstappen both get right in front of Sainz and Leclerc respectively. The hard tyres are still cold, but the warmed-up tyres of Leclerc and Sainz are not so good that they can overtake on the wet section outside the racing line. As a result, Red Bull's strategy worked perfectly.

Red Bull knows problems from Monaco

In retrospect, Ferrari lost their head on two occasions. First, by not responding immediately to Perez's undercut, thus giving him a free lap on the faster and warmed-up intermediates. That Sainz stayed out was wise, but it was then also an error of judgement to bring Leclerc in.

The undercut was a gamble by Ferrari that turned out badly. It could have worked like Perez's undercut on intermediates, but the hard tyres took too long to warm up. That Sainz was stuck behind Latifi for half a lap will not have been in the team's calculation either.

Red Bull seemed to respond better to the characteristics of Monaco in this respect. It knew that Perez could do an undercut with the intermediates with free lane, but the team actually stayed out longer because it saw that the hard tire took longer to warm up. You can be fast, but at the end of the day in Monaco it's all about position on the track. Red Bull anticipated this perfectly.

After this strategic joust Ferrari could do nothing more than wait and hope for a mistake by the Red Bull camp. That did not happen and so Ferrari fell from P1 and P2 back to P2 and P4. A big blow, because at this track it should have been Red Bull Racing's first blow after some lesser results.