Ferrari have taken a lot of flak from fans and pundits alike for their failed strategies throughout the season. However, the Prancing Horse’s strategists delivered when it mattered the most. The dexterity with which they outsmarted Red Bull in Abu Dhabi is certainly worthy of praise.

Max Verstappen won the drivers’ championship in Japan with 4 races to go. The race to the runner-up position in the standings was wide open, though. The contenders for the position, Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez both went into the season finale with 290 points each, with the Monegasque having a slight edge owing to more wins.

How Ferrari strategists outsmarted Red Bull’s Hannah Schmitz

Charles Leclerc started off the season with 2 wins out of three races. The Ferrari driver was 46 points ahead of the eventual champion Max Verstappen at one point in the season. However, with the car not progressing much, and some questionable tire and race strategies, Leclerc fell down the pecking order. The only chance of saving grace was securing the runner-up spot.

With Sergio Perez starting ahead of Charles with a faster car, Ferrari knew their only chance of beating the Mexican was through a clever strategy. And that is exactly what they did. Charles Leclerc was always going to go for a one-stop strategy. However, they had to give Red Bull the impression they were going for two.

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They threw the bait on Lap 33 on the radio message. Leclerc was told, “Box opposite Red Bull.” The message was to give Red Bull chief strategist Hannah Schmitz the impression that Ferrari was going for an undercut strategy.

Taking the bait, Red Bull called Perez in for a tire change while Charles stayed out and eventually took home the win with 1.3 second lead over Checo.

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Charles Leclerc lauds the team on the strategy call

The strategy call went perfectly for Charles Leclerc and Ferrari. Leclerc, talking post-race, revealed how it was always the plan and how the team was able to pull it off.

Talking with Sky Sports, Charles said, “I have to say that everything that we’ve done was exactly what we wanted to do.”

“That’s what was planned before. The laps where, I can say it now, where we dummied him and made him think that we were going to pit opposite. He took it and went for the second stop. So we did everything perfect. I’m very proud of our execution.”

Watch This Story: Ferrari Strategy Fails We Will Never Forget

What do you think of Ferrari’s big brain move? And do you think when push comes to shove, will Ferrari be able to execute more of such brilliant strategies next year?