25/07/2022
NEWS STORY
Carlos Sainz has reiterated his faith in Ferrari's strategy following another race in which the Italian team appeared to shoot itself in the foot.
In one of the best performances of today's French Grand Prix, the Spaniard, who had started from the back of the grid after taking on a new power unit, worked his way through the field and was in a point scoring position at the time teammate Charles Leclerc crashed out.
Though the Maranello outfit's hopes rested firmly on his shoulders, when the Spaniard pitted under the safety car following his teammate's crash he was unsafely released and almost collected Alex Albon in the process.
As he continued to work his way through the field, Sainz argued with his team over tyre strategy, and as he battled with Sergio Perez for third he was finally told to pit.
Stopping a lap later he rejoined the race in eighth but was able to work his way back up to fifth by the finish.
Ignoring the fact that his team gave him the call to pit at the exact moment he passed Perez, it was widely felt that the Spaniard would have been better served to continue on his medium tyres and have the (5 second) penalty for the unsafe release added to his overall time.
However, speaking after the race, Sainz defended the team's decision.
"I believed that maybe at the time it was maybe better to risk it and stay out, and see what happens with the tyres," he said, "even if it was a medium tyre on the limit of its life.
"My point of view was that if I couldn't pass Checo I would box," he continued, "because I was P4 and there was nothing really going on.
"But the moment I passed Checo I was like 'okay, I'm P3, let's see if I can pull away five seconds and make it to the end with these tyres'.
"At that stage, our numbers said that it was impossible to make it to the end, plus the five-second penalty, you risk even losing position to Fernando," he admitted. "So, to play it safe we knew that P5 plus fastest lap was good points.
"In the moment, maybe my feeling was different, until I don't see the numbers then everything is impossible for me. We'll never know what would have been the best.
"A podium position, I think with a perfect race we could have made it, it felt like a god recovery and fast pace.
"I think without the penalty, we would have started on pole or on the first row, the win would have been definitely possible."
The Spaniard's belief in Ferrari's strategy, follows comments he made after qualifying in relation to the Italian outfit.
"We've received quite a lot of criticism on the strategy front and I think it's a bit unfair," he told reporters. "Every team this season, there's going to be mistakes with tyres, choosing tyres and everything. But I think this year the team has been very solid on the strategy side and I think today proves it.
"Also the relationship with Charles and the way the team works I think again proves that it's working very well and we are working very well together."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Le Castellet here.