Carlos Sainz: “I had to face a crisis during the Grand Prix”
The Spanish driver played a key role in the team's victory this weekend on Italian soil. A fourth-place finish at the end thanks to a one-stop strategy, but it could have gone wrong as the Spaniard explained that he struggled a lot with the tires at one point in the race before eventually regaining performance.
It’s a successful new weekend for Ferrari. After two consecutive races finished on the podium, with Charles Leclerc’s third places earned at Spa and Zandvoort, the Italian team wanted to regain the first place, especially this weekend, on their home turf. To do this, the team introduced several developments that seem to have paid off when looking at the race results with a win and a fourth place finish. However, it wasn’t all easy, especially for Carlos Sainz.
An issue during Q3 for the Spanish driver
After promising trials, the Ferrari driver seemed like one of the contenders for pole position. A status that the former McLaren driver confirmed during the first two parts of qualifying. However, in Q3, things got complicated. From the start of the session, he came out of the pit lane just ahead of Max Verstappen but still managed to avoid a penalty. On the track, after a good first flying lap, he finished in third position, just ahead of his teammate, but the second one on his side was much less convincing. Despite setting a record in the first sector, the future Williams driver only managed the fifth time.
After the session, Sainz explained that the sudden drop in temperature and a mosquito in his helmet affected his performance as he had to close one of his eyes to be able to drive and that the lower temperatures had affected the stability of his car.
« A tenth and a half may not seem like much, but in Formula 1, every detail counts. Perhaps the drop in temperature towards the end of the session cost us more time than we thought. I had a mosquito in my eye in the final moments of Q3, and I had to deal with it during my last timed attempt, which also didn’t help.
A strategy that was successful in one go
Despite disappointing qualifications, the former Toro Rosso driver hoped for a good result in the race, aware of the potential of his car. He also mentioned the importance of managing the tires well in the face of the high temperatures. The tire management ultimately allowed Ferrari to win, being the only top team to opt for a single pit stop. A strategy that paid off in the end, even though the Spaniard said he reached a crisis point during the race where the tires stopped performing well due to wear, before eventually regaining performance in the final laps.
« For some reason, Charles [Leclerc] and I went through a phase of heavy degradation of the hard tires. And then they miraculously recovered, which allowed us to go all the way. But there was a moment when the others started to pit, when the tire was really in crisis, but then, in the last 10 laps, the tire recovered, and we were able to maintain a decent pace until the end ». With this result, Ferrari is now only 39 points behind Red Bull, the leading team, in the standings and could cause some upsets in this end of the season.
