The strategy did not play in Carlos Sainz’s favor at the United States Grand Prix. The 27-year-old driver was also the victim of an error at the Ferrari pit-stop in which he lost precious time thanks to which Bottas overtook him on the last lap. The worst of all, as he himself stated, is that he has suffered ” two or three similar mishaps” in a row.
Carlos Sainz entered the race in Austin half a point ahead of Charles Leclerc. However, he qualified fifth, behind his teammate, with a strategy that would be a handicap for him in the race. ” We have not risked a little more and put the average at the beginning of Q2 and go through with it because we have been the only ones to go out with the soft and this can compromise us a bit in the strategy, ” the Spaniard acknowledged on Saturday.
Carlos Sainz also admitted that although the soft tire could help him at the start, the Ferrari team simulations said that starting with the medium was better. That is why Daniel Ricciardo managed to overtake him at the start.
“There was an error in the pit-stop “
To regain position, Carlos Sainz threw an undercut on the Australian. The strategy seemed the right one but the Ferrari team lost a crucial time to the Madrilenian in the pit-stop . Specifically 5.8 seconds . Carlos Sainz was also able to overcome that, who came to have Ricciardo within reach of DRS until they both touched due to a “ slightly dirty ” maneuver by the McLaren driver.
“It was a bit dirty. He did it on purpose.”
Sparks fly between Carlos Sainz and Ricciardo ⚡⚡ # USADAZNF1 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Y8PiEnjovO
– DAZN Spain (@DAZN_ES) October 24, 2021
Bad luck once again took hold with Carlos Sainz. His wing was damaged and his car was less competitive after the incident. For this reason, and due to the time he lost in the pit-stop , Valtteri Bottas managed to overtake him on the last lap. The Spanish was thus relegated to seventh place when he had fifth in his pocket.
Later, Mattia Binotto, head of the Ferrari team, acknowledged: “ There was an error in the pit-stop . McLaren reacted and recovered, and the bad pit-stop cost us the place with Ricciardo but also with Bottas ”. Carlos Sainz, for his part, pointed out about the error: “We have not been able to do the undercut. It was pretty much done with a decent stop. There are already two or three in a row . But that’s what there is”.
The worst pit-stop of Carlos Sainz
It should be noted that Carlos Sainz had just lost 8.1 seconds in his pit-stop during the Turkish GP. So it was a problem with the light signal that led to the bad stop of Ferrari. He lost even more time at Silverstone, where it took him 12.3 seconds to complete his pit-stop .
Without the time it has lost in the pit-stops , Ferrari would be ahead of McLaren in the Constructors’ World Championship. Simply, if Carlos Sainz had not given up 5.8 seconds in Austin and had finished ahead of Bottas and Ricciardo in the United States Grand Prix, the Italian team would already occupy third place. At the moment this is 3.5 points behind this one. It is also evident that without the time Carlos Sainz has lost in his pit-stops , he would have reached Austin with more than half a point of advantage over Leclerc .
Fortune did not smile on the Spaniard in his early days with Ferrari . In two of his first seven races he was out of the points zone. In addition, it was a handicap for him, as for the rest of the drivers who changed teams, having only had a day and a half of preseason.
Despite everything, Carlos Sainz has been on the podium three times by just one of his teammate, thus opening a debate on who should be the leader of Ferrari. For now, after what happened at the United States Grand Prix, Leclerc is once again ahead of Sainz although with only 5.5 points of advantage.
