Carlos Sainz netted a loss of one position in last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, after he was the only driver starting on hard. He had a decent start from sixth on the grid, gaining a place, but after everything played out, the Ferrari driver saw himself crossing the line in seventh, overtaking the struggling Sergio Pérez in the closing stages of the race. George Russell’s disqualification meant he eventually would get promoted to sixth, but after the race he was a bit disappointed about how his strategy played out.
“Yeah, I feel like we took some risks at the start, starting on hard,” Sainz explained. “We even won a position, so I was very optimistic and positive about this strategy. We managed to extend it quite a bit, to lap 20.”
“With hindsight, not long enough, because probably one stop seemed like a good possibility today. And yeah, probably the main thing is that we didn’t do a 1, but we also didn’t do an optimal 2. Because we boxed too late for the 2 or too early for the 1.
“Yeah, it’s easy to say now in hindsight, but I felt like the race was promising a lot more. After 20 laps I was like, we might have a shot at the podium. And then suddenly I finished P7, nine seconds behind the P6.”
Given that Russell managed to do a 34-lap stint on his hard tyres, Sainz feels there has been made a wrong decision in regard to the stint length, as he feels they were too short to make a one-stop race work, but to long for succesful two-stop strategy.
“I think if we [are] starting on hards, if anything we would have needed to commit to extending another 10 laps at least. And if we were on a 2 stop, maybe boxing 5-6 laps earlier to spend as much time as possible on that hard tyre that today was performing really well.”
However, despite his concerns about the strategy –“clearly there’s something that we will have to look at,”– Sainz was also realistic about the actual pace of Ferrari at the moment.
“I think our direct competitors today were quicker, so I don’t think it would have changed much.
“When you see the pace of Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren in the race, I don’t think so,” the Spaniard added when asked if the team has made a step in the right direction.
“I think still 2 or 3 tenths. So yeah, with that car we started on pole and we still finished P4. With my car, I felt like we were on for a podium. And then as soon as everyone put their hards on, you could see which pace everyone was doing. Even though my last stint, I felt very competitive and quick.
“Then when they told me a lap times of the others, I was like, no, it’s not quite as quick as I wish.”
Add that the balance is still quite far off –“the quicker we go through the corners, the worse it gets towards the end of the race,”– and it is clear that the Maranello-based squad has their work cut out for them in the second half of the season.
