As things stand, Carlos Sainz will start P10 in the Singapore Grand Prix as the winner of last year’s race had a crash in Q3.
After letting Oscar Piastri by seconds before, Sainz got on the gas as he set off on his first push lap. However, he lost the rear in turn 18 and ended up in the barriers. Luckily, he was unharmed.
The damage to the rear was significant, with the gearbox taking quite a hit.
Speaking post-qualifying, the 30-year-old explained how letting multiple cars through on his preparation lap affected his tyre temperatures.
“Yeah, I had a bit of a strange accident there.
“I had to let a lot of cars through there opening my lap, and my tyres were just a lot colder than I thought they would be. I misjudged the grip going on the bump on [turn] 17 and it completely snapped on me. Driver mistake.
“I underestimated the grip I would get launching the lap. I was already under pressure with another car coming and I knew that launching the lap I was already going to be slower because of the approach in the last corner so slow, so it meant that I tried to do something that was not enough grip to do.”
Sainz has looked a step behind Lando Norris and teammate Charles Leclerc over a lap this weekend, and it got worse in qualifying as Max Verstappen, Oscar Piastri and the two Mercedes drivers added themselves into the mix.
The 3-time race winner was not helped by brake problems on Friday, and he could not quite find the rhythm he did in 2023.
Ferrari’s 2024 machine tends to be very gentle on its tyres, hurting them on Saturdays. That is another factor at play.
“Yeah, it’s been a big struggle for me this weekend. Very strange how it can change from one year to another.
“But like we’ve seen many times this year, to get the tyres in the right window over one lap with our car is quite tricky. I had a couple of decent laps over the weekend but in general very inconsistent.
“I had issues with the brakes yesterday which didn’t help my build up to the weekend.
“Here it’s all about gaining confidence, executing from FP1 to Q3 perfect laps and I didn’t have that this weekend. I was just struggling.
“Yesterday I didn’t get into a rhythm and today to get the tyres and the brakes into a window was just a very tricky thing to do.”
Asked about the peakiness of the Pirelli tyres, Sainz says it can go to extreme levels at certain venues. Singapore is one of those tracks.
“The tyres are the same in theory [as 2023] but I don’t know what’s going on. In some tracks it’s extremely peaky. 5-10 degrees under the right level and there is zero grip. 5-10 degrees above there is also zero grip.
“You just need to find the right area.”
Leclerc had looked a match for Norris on Friday as Sainz finished FP2 in P3. Come qualifying, that order changed, with Ferrari looking like they were in an intense battle with Verstappen, Piastri and the Mercedes cars for P2 before the disaster unfolded in Q3.
Sainz was P6 in Q1 and Q2, and he says Friday’s pace should be ignored as teams can sandbag, such as having more fuel in their car or running a lower engine mode.
Nonetheless, he was confused as to why polesitter Lando Norris only improved by a tenth from his FP3 time in Q3.
“I don’t like considering Friday too much because you don’t know what the others are doing and I never try to take too many conclusions from that.
“You can already see in FP3 Lando went a second quicker than FP2. That shows that there was something that they were sandbagging with.
“Even in Q3 they only went one tenth quicker than FP3 which is quite weird. There’s something strange going on probably with the tyre preparation and how much you can extract this weekend with the tyres because it’s not normal that there’s only one tenth between FP3 fastest lap and Q3 lap.”
Asked if he could be starting from pit lane due to potential spec changes because of the damage, he was unsure.
In Baku, Sainz displayed very strong pace on the hards when in P4, hunting down the lead group and heading for a podium until his late clash with Sergio Pérez. He hopes to repeat that good speed tomorrow.
“I don’t know honestly. The car looks quite damaged, and I don’t know what we will do.
“I just hope that I can have a normal race tomorrow, get into a rhythm like I got in Baku, and then we can show good pace. I think this year once I get into a rhythm in the race we should be ok.
“It’s just over one lap with the black magic of the tyres to get everything working […] you saw the mistake I did. It’s not common and not typical, and it shows that there must be something with a very fine line between getting them to grip and not to grip.
“This weekend has been that way, so tomorrow as long as I get into a rhythm we will be there.”
Pushed on what he thinks is achievable if he gets into the rhythm from P10 on the grid, Sainz wants to get a good night’s sleep before getting into race mode for Sunday night’s 61-lap contest.
“We will see.
“Let’s get into the rhythm first and then see how is the pace, see what the strategy allows us to do, and hopefully we can move forward. Extra DRS [zone].
“I’m still optimistic but I need a good night’s sleep to feel optimistic also because today was a big blow for me, and I didn’t enjoy at all.”
After qualifying and visiting the stewards, Sainz was handed a 25,000 euro fine for crossing the track following his crash.
