In the first few laps, Carlos Sainz saw his third position against Lewis Hamilton threatened, before Ferrari told him that he had to make his first pit stop. The man from Madrid, to combat the great pace of the Mercedes with means, went through the pit lane, but it was at that moment when the test of the Prancing Horse driver went overboard.
To try to retain the podium, the Italians wanted to mount the medium tires on the Spaniard’s F1-75, but the rush was not good in the red garage, since by calling Carlos Sainz so hastily, they forgot the left rear wheel inside from the box, in what was another image that damages Ferrari’s reputation in 2022.
The arrest went to almost more than 13 seconds , and caused the Madrid native to fall several positions when he rejoined the track. When team boss Mattia Binotto was asked to explain what happened at the pitstop, he called the situation a “disaster”.
“At the first stop, what we did was know that Lewis [Hamilton] was preparing for a pit stop where he might undercut,” he said. “We tried to react to stay ahead of him, which was the best way to keep track position, because we knew he was very fast in the first stint of the race.”
“When we saw the Mercedes pit crew in the pitlane we called our driver to come in, but that was when he was in the last corner and it was too late for the mechanics to be ready,” revealed Binotto. “It was too late for us.”
Sainz reached the finish line in fifth position, but a five-second penalty for an unsafe release when he was leaving the box and passing Fernando Alonso, caused him to fall to eighth place. The director of the Italian team believes that the decision of his sanction was “very harsh”, since the Madrid driver only bothered the Alpine driver because the McLaren mechanics quickly left in front of his stopping place.
“In the second, with the unsafe release and the sanction, it cost Carlos [Sainz] several places, I feel that the decision of the FIA and the stewards was very harsh,” he explained. “The reason is that, when he came in, McLaren was in the pits, and at that point we knew it would be an unsafe release . We waited and waited until we had just the right space with the Alpine coming in, and so we let him out.
“Then he had to slow down and almost stop because the McLaren mechanics were circling [Norris’s] car, and to be sure, we almost went into anti-stall. The unsafe release wasn’t unsafe, in As for the way Carlos acted, that’s why I think the decision was tough,” said the Swiss.
