Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur defends strategy at Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix

Ferrari's team principal Fred Vasseur has spoken out in defence of the team's strategy employed during the Hungarian Grand Prix, even as he acknowledged that the Scuderia made "too many mistakes" during the race.

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz had a challenging weekend at the Hungaroring, finishing in seventh and eighth positions, respectively.

Sainz made a good start, surging from 11th place on the grid, taking advantage of the Soft tyres he started with. However, his progress was halted, and he later lost out to Mercedes' George Russell in the race.

On the other hand, Leclerc's afternoon was plagued with misfortune, as he finished sixth on the road but was penalized with a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane during his second pit stop. This was in addition to a slow 9.4-second stop during his first tyre change, which left him around 20 seconds behind his minimum race time.

Speaking to the media after the race, Vasseur said, "I think that first, we will need time to understand what we did right and wrong. The format was different, and it's not so easy to analyse the perfect weekend, and you need to get all the results to be able to do a retro-engineering on this. But on our side, it's much more the fact that we made too many mistakes from the beginning to the end.

"It's not just about the pit stop or the pit entry or the quali or the management of the tyres. The potential was probably better than what we showed [on Saturday]. At least with Charles, we lost 20 seconds in the race."

Ferrari faced criticism on social media for their treatment of Sainz during the race. Despite being on softer tyres in the first stint, Leclerc did not offer Sainz a free pass, and the Spaniard was pitted second out of the two at the next round of pit stops, resulting in a loss of track position.

Vasseur justified the decision, stating, "It was the best way for us to protect the result of the team. At the end of the race, if you have a look, I think that the potential of Charles, considering the fact that Carlos has to start with soft and how we were with the life that Charles would have finished probably 20 seconds ahead of Carlos, it means that it was a good choice."

When asked if Leclerc's issues would have altered the strategy, Vasseur remained firm, "Nobody can predict before the call that you will get the penalty, you will have the issue with the wheel gun and so on.

"It's always easy to redo the race after the chequered flag and to say it would have been different. But I think at this stage it was the right call, and I'm still convinced."

Now, all eyes turn to the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday, 30 July, where Ferrari hope to bounce back and showcase their true potential.