Speaking to Vision4Sport, six-time Grand Prix winner Riccardo Patrese said Ferrari are still poor at making team orders during the race, claiming they will lose more races if what happened at Zandvoort happens again.
The Italian also claims that Ferrari have to make Lewis Hamilton the number one driver to save confusion in future races.
Ahead of the Monza Grand Prix, which Vision4Sport offer luxury hospitality packages for, Patrese has said Kimi Antonelli being the first Italian since 1966 to win Monza would be ‘wonderful’, but he predicts Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to win the race in front of the Tifosi.
Read the full interview below:
Ferrari is doing very well this year. But at Zandvoort they lost at least a podium because of the slowness of their decision-making around team orders. It was very poor by Ferrari.
Lewis was coming behind Leclerc, but he had to wait two laps before Leclerc let him through. He lost maybe two or three seconds and that made all the difference as to whether Lewis reached the podium.
The car is not yet in the same level of the Mercedes. Probably the McLaren is a little bit better than Ferrari.
But you know if you want to go and beat the Mercedes you cannot afford such mistakes and you have to take every opportunity that is provided. They must decide who is number one driver now.
They can’t say mid-race, ‘We are going to think about it for a while, and we’ll come back to you.’ You lose races and points and opportunities when that happens. You have to make an instant decision about who is going to let who pass.
I do. I can understand his frustration and why he made those kinds of comments.
Usually, it is the older drivers who aren’t afraid to voice their opinion.
In my era, everybody was complaining and shouting and fighting. In the world of Formula 1 today, everything is a bit flat. So, when Lewis says what he did, it makes things interesting.
I agree with him when he said Ferrari have to be like Mercedes.
If there is a chance that Ferrari can go and compete for the championship, they must choose the driver. It’s not that they can do what McLaren did last year, when their Papaya rules left the door open for both Lando and Oscar and refused team orders.
In 1983, my team, Brabham, had to choose between me and Nelson Piquet, who had to go and fight the championship against Alain Prost at Renault. So, I was sacrificed to give the maximum support to Piquet, and we managed to win the championship.
What happened at Zandvoort shows that Ferrari still don’t have clear ideas. If you want to go and compete for the drivers’ championship, you need to choose one of the two.
And Lewis has to be the number one. He’s doing a fantastic job. And he’s more consistent than Charles at the moment.
Kimi Antonelli being the first Italian to win at Monza since 1966 would be a wonderful thing.
Other Italians have tried, like Michele Alboreto and even me, and we never won! It would be fantastic for the country.
Kimi is very, very popular in Italy but also very surprised because he has done so well so quickly. Nobody expected to have an Italian driver at such a young age competing for the championship.
The fans in Italy are divided between Antonelli fans and Ferrari fans! It has been so long since Ferrari were winning that the young fans in Italy support Kimi rather than Ferrari. The new generation are very pro Antonelli.
He is already a big name but not everyone recognises him yet. Last year he was nobody and this year he is winning Grand Prix. If he wins the title his life will change a lot!
Kimi is a very friendly and nice person. He is kind to everyone. Even Ferrari fans will be happy if Kimi wins in Monza.
In my time it was all about Ferrari, nobody cared if I was winning or losing because it was all about Ferrari.
We know who the strongest drivers are in Kimi and Lando. But Monza is unique. And Charles Leclerc loves the circuit that he won at previously. So, I would say Leclerc will win.
Lando will be second and Kimi third.
