Ferrari was hit by a radio communication pa🦩rtial blackout while Sebastian Vettel was pitting during the Austrian Gra𒁃nd Prix, team principal Mattia Binotto confirmed.

Vettel endured a nightmare firs🧔t pit stop at the Red Bull Ring when he came in on 🌱Lap 21 with his Ferrari crew scampering to get in position as he pulled up.

Losing a handful of vital seconds waiting for his Ferrari team, Vet🙈tel returned t꧒o the track in between midfield traffic, losing even more time to the front-runners as a result.

Despite recovering to fourth pla🀅ce by the finish, the German driver finished less than one second behind Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas who claimed the final spot on the podium meaning the pit stop problem proved costly.

Ferrari boss Binotto confirmed the team suffered a radio communication dropout meaning only s🎃ome of the♛ mechanics were told Vettel was pitting.

“We had a missed radio com🍌munication,” Binotto said. “We need to understand🅠 why that happened. From the pit wall we called the mechanics. Some of them which were connected to the intercom, via the cable, couldn’t get reached.

“The on-air communication didn’t reach the mechanics and they were not awar𒅌e that Sebastian was enteri🤡ng into the pit lane.

“These are communications made at the very last second, obviously, and the times to communicate the mechaniꦜcs realising there was a problem on the radio we missed the seconds, as you will all see on TV.”

The pit stop issue rounded out a frustrating Austrian Grand Prix for Vettel w༒ho was hit by an air pressure intake fault with his engine during qualifying which denie𓆉d him the chance to fight for pole position in Q3, claimed by Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, leaving the German driver starting the race down in ninth place.

Vettel has dropped to fourth place in the F1 drivers’ standings as Max Verstappen claimed victory for Red Bull in Austria, putting him three points ﷺahead of the four-time F1 world champion.