Decoding F1 'undercut' that helped Ferrari bring home the winning trophy despite low odds

Still wondering what happened at the Singapore Grand Prix? We break the moment that changed the race.

The ‘undercut’ was the word on everyone’s minds this Sunday as Ferrari scored their first 1-2 finish of the season on a track that few expected Ferrari to win at. The team’s decision to pit Sebastian Vettel before teammate Charles Leclerc, while raising eyebrows, allowed Vettel to undercut Leclerc and seize a rare race-winning chance.

“The one-two today is very important to us because we achieved it in a different scenario, on a very different type of circuit to Spa-Francorchamps or Monza,” said Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto.


Ferrari wasn’t the only one to make good use of the undercut. Red Bull got the jump on Mercedes by pitting Max Verstappen at the same time as Vettel, allowing Verstappen to undercut Lewis Hamilton who started the race in second position.

“The undercut was more powerful than everybody expected,” Mercedes’ boss Toto Wolff was quoted as saying post the race.



So what exactly is an undercut?
According to Formula One’s beginner’s guide to F1 slang on their website, the ‘undercut’ is when a driver, struggling to get past another car, pits early in a bid to get a performance advantage from fresh tyres that will hopefully put them ahead when their rival then pits.

Still confused? Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo breaks it down for you (start at 1:48)



How did the undercut help Ferrari?
“Well done to Seb, he deserved to win! We had to bring him in first, to protect his position because Max Verstappen was about to pit and that was Seb’s best chance to overtake Hamilton,” explained Binotto post the race.

“Also, we knew that on the following lap we would have pitted Charles, so it was important not to stop both the drivers on the same lap. The undercut was very effective. Seb drove very fast and very well on new tyres in that part of the race and gained the position to go ahead of Charles, which is part of racing.”