Carlos Sainz started the 2023 F1 Qatar GP sprint race in a big way. He started in 6th and, with good reflexes, taking advantage of his risky start bet on soft rubber, he started perfectly and moved up to third place. The Madrid driver even battled for second place with Oscar Piastri, who started in the middle, but he quickly saw that it was not his battle. He finally finished 6th after a big drop in the performance of the soft tire, something that also happened to other drivers who started with that compound like Russell, Leclerc or Alonso.
“It turned out to be a strange race (sprint). Going very fast in the first laps, thinking we got the strategy and the soft tire, and then when I did the third lap, suddenly I lost a second every lap or something and from then on medium tires I was a second faster. The ‘Safety Cars’ saved us”, commented Carlos Sainz after the sprint event before the ‘DAZN F1’ microphone.
Furthermore, it was clear to Carlos that the result could have been much worse had it not been for the two safety cars that appeared on the track due to the two accidents. With them, Sainz was able to reserve more rubber. Without them, it is clear that he may be among the latter: “Without the safety vehicles, all of us who had a tender today would have finished last. We expected to have an advantage at the start and then suffer, but not suffer as we experienced, which is clear, between our car and the grain experienced by that tire… we suffer a lot.”
Doubts for this Sunday
For this Sunday’s race, the question is to see what the FIA decides. The International Automobile Federation, along with Pirelli, found that the tires were suffering a lot of delamination on Friday because the cars were going through curves that were too aggressive for F1 cars. So, they chose to narrow the track so that cars could not pass them, and left an important decision for this Saturday night: after the tire analysis, they can make three mandatory stops for the race and a maximum of 20 turns . for each compound for safety reasons. Carlos is clear that the FIA should choose these measures.
“If I have to support something, I do it by staying on the safe side and making more stops and not pushing the tire to the limit of its useful life.” because that’s where you risk getting punctured. And now, The truth is that there are only a few laps of those who will analyze, they are not the 19 who have because most of them are chasing the safety car”Sainz concluded.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
