Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz admits Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez were “in a class of their own” at the Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix after the Spaniard was unable to keep the two Red Bulls behind from pole position .
Verstappen outpaced Sainz by six tenths in Saturday’s qualifying but the Spaniard inherited pole position due to a grid penalty for the World Champion. But even from 13th place, Verstappen put on a terrific performance to claim his second straight race at Spa and his ninth win of 2022, as after an incredible 16 laps he passed Sainz and took the lead.
After he had nothing to oppose Verstappen on the approach to Les Combes, Sainz also had to cede second place to Pérez. He crossed the finish line in third, over 26 seconds behind Verstappen and nine seconds behind the Mexican.
Sainz: “Sliding around too much”
“Red Bull, Max and Checo were in a class of their own today,” admits Sainz. “And unfortunately we couldn’t put up a stronger fight and had to admit defeat. But we’ll have to understand why we weren’t competitive at this track.”
Sainz, who alongside Verstappen was the only front-runner to start on the soft tyres, quickly struggled with wear on the softest Pirelli compound and is hoping Ferrari can figure out why they were so far off pace.
“I had a good start and a good restart after the safety car, but the pace just wasn’t there,” he explains. “We had a lot of overheating with the tires and sliding around a lot. For some reason our package wasn’t quite there this weekend but we ended up on the podium and we’re taking that with us.”
“My first two laps were strong, but then it immediately went into high tire degradation. And then I noticed that we had more wear than we should have.”
Sainz admits: “Red Bull in a different league”
Surprisingly, Mercedes driver George Russell also made a stronger impression than Sainz in the latter part of the race. The Briton just missed out on the podium, just over two seconds down.
The Ferrari driver suspects that the track in Spa, with its many long straights, did not suit the F1-75 and is therefore hoping for an improvement in the upcoming race in Zandvoort. For Ferrari’s home race in Monza, however, things should become more difficult again.
“We just weren’t strong enough compared to [Red Bull]. They were in a different league this weekend. They were just strong in qualifying, strong in the race, better at tire management, stronger on the straights, stronger on the corners – at least some of them. And unfortunately we just weren’t fast enough this weekend.”
Ferrari puzzles over “biggest gap of the season”
“After my strong start, restarting after the safety car and the lead I had after the first few laps, I thought I had a good chance. But I realized very quickly that I was overheating the tires. I slipped around a lot, and that shouldn’t be happening.”
When asked if he was surprised by the big gap, the Spaniard says: “Yes, a bit. I think we’d be lying if we didn’t say that. We’re surprised because the gap was certainly a lot bigger, right the greatest we’ve seen between the two teams this season.”
“And that’s something we didn’t expect. It means we have to go back and analyze why we are so weak on this type of track. We have to draw conclusions from that and try to build a better, low-downforce package for Monza if we’re not that strong there either.”
Sainz emphasizes: FIA directive not to blame for performance
“I actually hoped that the six to eight tenths that we saw in qualifying would be less in the race with warmer conditions,” Sainz continues. “Maybe I was more optimistic and hopeful about my prospects for the race. Unfortunately, that only increased the gap and we slipped more. We had even less grip and fell behind faster than I expected.”
According to Sainz, however, the lack of performance is not a consequence of the FIA’s technical directive that came into force in Spa to curb “porpoising”: “That has nothing to do with it. I think it’s a consequence of the track characteristics, and our package is not suitable for this type of track.”
“We’ll see that after Zandvoort. I think we’ll see how we perform at Zandvoort, which is a high downforce circuit, to draw any conclusions. But my feeling – and it’s just a feeling – is that we’re here had a somewhat unfavorable weekend in terms of the car’s performance and the efficiency ratio here, and Red Bull had a great weekend,” said Sainz.
Sainz expects Red Bull to win Ferrari’s home race in Monza
“We have to draw conclusions from this weekend and analyze why the lower downforce package wasn’t as strong as Red Bull’s lower downforce package. I think it’s also an inherent characteristic of each car.”
“High downforce tracks should definitely do better than lower downforce tracks and that’s a trend we’ve been seeing all year. So it wouldn’t surprise me if Red Bull is faster again at Monza, but we definitely want to get a lot closer and fight.”
Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto also has to admit that the Red Bull in Belgium was the measure of all things: “Red Bull was simply the strongest this weekend.”