Second place at the start, fourth place at the finish: Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz has taken steps backwards in the 2023 Mexican Grand Prix. But the Formula 1 driver has no illusions: “With Max’s pace [Verstappen] and Hamilton it was a matter of time before they passed. In racing condition they are simply much faster than us.” And that’s exactly how it happened.
Overtaking Verstappen before the first corner had nothing to do with the race trim: Coming from P3, Verstappen benefited from the slipstream of the vehicles in front of him and from Red Bull’s own top speed to immediately take the lead.
But Ferrari had already indirectly helped to bring Verstappen forward when he set off, says Sainz: “[Charles Leclerc] and I both didn’t fare very well.”
In fact, this was already indicated early on the weekend. Sainz admits “a few problems” during test starts in free practice. The SF-23 did not cope well with the track conditions in Mexico City and Ferrari “probably didn’t get the starting set-up perfect, even though we had started very well a few times recently”.
Verstappen, on the other hand, “got away from the line very quickly” and “he was next to me almost immediately,” says Sainz. This meant that a position was lost in the first lap.
Medium stint becomes a test of patience for Sainz
Shortly before the halfway point of the race, Lewis Hamilton also overtook Sainz’s Ferrari in the Mercedes, which was running on worn medium tires at the time because Ferrari was aiming for a one-stop strategy and was planning a long first stint.
But things didn’t go according to plan for Sainz: He speaks of a “strange stint with medium” and “problems with the front tires”. He didn’t have a good feeling “practically from the introductory lap.” “It was only with Hard that we were able to achieve the pace that was possible this weekend,” says Sainz.
His impression is correct: With medium, Sainz was mostly in the low range of 1:24 minutes with initially slightly better lap times. Hard immediately went into the 1:23 region, but the lead around Verstappen drove 1:22 deep and was sometimes one second per lap better.
The Ferrari opponents pull away in the race
Tire wear was again a factor at Ferrari: According to our technology partner PACETEQ, eight drivers performed better than Sainz over the race distance, but Leclerc was also only the sixth force in the field, behind Williams driver Alexander Albon and Alpine driver Pierre Gasly .
This isn’t a surprise for Sainz, because “it’s been like that all year,” he says and explains: “We can fight in qualifying and sometimes beat our opponents, but in the race they pull ahead of us by two or three tenths. Sometimes we’re only a tenth short, sometimes it’s four or six. It depends on the route.”
Ferrari has long identified tire wear and performance over the distance as “the main weakness of our car,” says Sainz. But the Ferrari drivers will have to live with it for the rest of the 2023 season: the 2024 car will provide relief at the earliest, “because that’s what we’re concentrating on next year.”