Ferrari was running first and second during the first stint of the race but opted to leave Raikkonen out for a number of laps more than third-placed Nico Rosberg, allowing the Mercedes to jump him. Both Ferraris were then left on supersoft tyres during a red flag period when a number of cars switched to mediums and ran to the end of the race, costing Sebastian Vettel a chance of victory.
Raikkonen retired shortly after the red flag and acknowledges Ferrari might have got the strategy wrong but says new tyre regulations – which allow teams to select from three compounds rather than two last year – made an obvious choice more difficult.
“Obviously we were thinking what to do, it was a different choice for different cars and now we have to see what would have been the best choice,” Raikkonen said. “Obviously in my case it wouldn’t have made any difference because we had to retire.
“This year you have more choices with the tyres, so it’s a bit hard to chose and this weekend with tricky conditions we didn’t really know how the tyres would have worked.”
And Raikkonen refused to criticise Ferrari for leaving him out for so long at the start of the race.
“During the pit stops it’s up to the team to decide, they can see the whole picture and we followed the plan. That cost us a place but that place was lost as soon as Rosberg stopped and jumped us immediately.”
