Carlos Sainz delivered one of the scenes of the race at the Formula 1 race in Silverstone – albeit in a negative way. On laps 43 and 44, the Spaniard lost three places to Sergio Perez, Alexander Albon and Charles Leclerc within a few corners.
Even Pierre Gasly passed Sainz shortly afterwards, but at least against the Alpine the Spaniard was able to counter and retain his tenth place. The Ferrari driver finally finished the race in this position.
“Sainz was completely out of character when he was overtaken, that was almost embarrassing,” Ralf Schumacher evaluates the scene on “Sky”. Sainz himself explains the situation by saying that he had significantly older tires than the other drivers around him.
Basically, he thinks “that I drove a really decent race,” he emphasizes and explains that he initially had a long stint on the medium tires and after his pit stop on lap 26 had “very good pace” on the hard tires .
Formula 1: 50:50 decision for Ferrari
But that was exactly the problem, because on lap 33 the virtual and later the real safety car came shortly afterwards. “Then the safety car came at the worst possible time for me because I was out of tyres,” explains the Spaniard.
Sainz was in a quandary because, according to his own statement, another pit stop would have dropped him back to tenth place. Without a stop, he would have been much further up the field, but would have had older tires than almost all the other drivers.
It was a 50:50 decision, he explains. “That’s why I left it to the team,” said Sainz. Ultimately, Ferrari decided against a pit stop, which Sainz said was the “riskier” option, even though he was initially seventh after the end of the safety car period.
However, he emphasizes that it was only a matter of time before Perez would overtake him. “I did my best to keep myself in this position. Ultimately, however, it was clear that I would soon be out of the picture,” Sainz shrugs.
“I drove with a used hard tire against fresh medium and soft tires,” he recalls, emphasizing that he did his job “quite well” until Perez finally overtook him as the first driver. Then the downward spiral began.
Formula 1: Second worst season result for Sainz
Because during the action his tires got a bit dirty, and then the other drivers behind him would have eaten him up. “Against Perez he went a little too far and lost positions,” confirms team boss Frederic Vasseur on “Sky”.
However, it is clear that it would not have been an absolute top result for Sainz even without the safety car. “The strategy wasn’t that bad, but our pace wasn’t particularly good. We would have expected more against Mercedes and McLaren,” he explains.
“Fifth to seventh place was possible, but then the safety car came and I didn’t have any tires left,” he explains, emphasizing that it was very windy and the car was very difficult to drive again. “It’s very difficult to be consistent in these conditions,” said Sainz.
In the end, tenth place was the second-worst result of the season for the Spaniard. So far he has only landed further behind in Australia, where he fell completely out of the points due to a time penalty.