Sainz: “Maybe we didn’t make the right save”

From fighting for the podium Carlos Sainz finished 8th at the Monaco GP after a race in which he was the passenger of two wrong decisions from the Ferrari strategy wall. so, Carlos Sainz He was not satisfied with the decisions made in this Grand Prix by his team, making that clear “it could be done better”.

The Spanish pilot started 4th behind Ocon. Esteban, who had a worse pace than him and the first two, Verstappen and Alonso, were blocking. Carlos wanted to pass him on lap 11 but he held the Frenchman. No space. He stayed in that little train, with more and more cars behind him, including Hamilton, Gasly and Russell. The fight for the podium is exciting. Then something came that Carlos couldn’t understand.

While drivers like Verstappen stretched their stints to the maximum in order not to stop, knowing it might rain, Ferrari called Carlos to the pits when Hamilton and Ocon stopped. It seemed like an attack on Esteban for the podium, but it wasn’t like that. Sainz left Ocon back on the track and Carlos didn’t understand it. He complained on the radio. Ferrari stopped him because he knew he couldn’t overtake the Frenchman, who was alone “Aim to defend the area with Hamilton”. Carlos was very angry with the radio. “I don’t care about Hamilton!” he exclaimed, making it clear that he wanted to fight for the podium and not think about saving fourth place.

Then, it started raining on the final stretch of the race, with 27 laps to go. Sainz tested it on everything with water on the track. He took the most risks and put the guts the team didn’t have into the strategy. And there, his team waited too long to put the intermediates on him. He called it a late return. Carlos did an extra lap on the wet ground and leaned against the wall. He managed to continue his march but lost his position. From fighting he became 3rd, became 8th.

“It’s a shame because this weekend we had a very good pace. Racing all the time is comfortable and pulling, trying to move forward. But with two pit stops where we probably weren’t successful in either of them, one too early and one too late, nothing… the Monaco lottery. Sometimes it comes out and sometimes it doesn’t. We need to study what we can do better. Conditions are very difficult today, It’s all very difficult, but I think we can do better”Carlos Sainz commented on ‘DAZN F1’.

“It was clear that the first stop, when I saw that I was approaching a very good ‘on lap’ (turning towards the pits), that the hard tire saved a lot, with the possibility of rain, of the ‘ Safety Car’, a red flag… I was a little surprised at the stop, especially after starting behind Esteban Ocon. And maybe, yes, I was frustrated, I didn’t cheat”he said of the first stop.

“And perhaps, the ‘timing’ of the second stop, trying to extend a lap that was clearly not necessary. I became a bit of a victim of frustration and seeing that we couldn’t pass him (to Ocon) and in the end we have failed and that is how it is. We’ve already thrown the dice and it hasn’t come out ”, he added about the second pit stop.

“It’s better that it happens this year, the car is obviously not where we want it to be.”, argument. “But it is also true that we must continue to learn from these situations and moments of tension, from the doubts we have from time to time. And we must continue to improve”, concluded the Spaniard.