The last event of the year did not end the way Carlos Sainz and Ferrari hoped. The Spanish driver was in fact the protagonist of a subdued weekend, which had already taken a bad turn in FP2 due to the impact with the barriers in turn three after losing the car on a bump. The weekend then became further complicated due to a disappointing qualifying in which he was eliminated in Q1, thus being forced into a comeback race.
Precisely for this reason the team chose to start on the hard but, according to Sainz, this choice showed one of the limits of a car which, remaining for a long time in dirty air, wore out the tires too quickly and thus had to focus on the two stops. The initial idea, in fact, was to make a single pit stop going from the hardest compound to the medium one but, having to bring the stop earlier than their own expectations, the Maranello team was forced to mount a second set of hard with which to try to go as long as possible.
Once we realized that the points were essentially almost impossible to reach, we decided to try to stay on the track hoping for a possible entry of the Safety Car, which at that moment would have given the chance not only to fit a softer compound, but also to save a few seconds on parking. Alternatively, although much more unlikely, the hope was that of a red flag that would freeze the positions. However, this did not occur and, in the end, Sainz was also forced to pit a lap early due to a Power Unit problem.
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-23, Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23
“Today and this weekend in general didn’t go how I expected or how I wanted to finish the year. Honestly it’s very disappointing and I’m not happy, especially considering how close we came to Mercedes in the constructors’ championship. We will analyze what we could have done better today and to understand what went wrong this weekend, because clearly the pace and the feeling with the car were not good”, explained the Ferrari driver during the interviews.
“We chose to start on the hard road thinking of making just one stop. We have seen on other occasions during this season that, when we start on the harder compounds, we struggle a lot with this car and we saw this again today. We had nothing to lose by starting sixteenth, we tried, but it didn’t work. At the start of the race, with dirty air from other cars and a lot of sliding, it proved to be a compound that didn’t work for us. When we realized that we had little chance of scoring points, we stayed out due to a Safety Car, but it didn’t work and we had to retire due to a problem with the Power Unit”, added the Spaniard, explaining the strategy and what didn’t work on a purely purely technical level. tactical.
Beyond the final result, which saw Ferrari come out third in the constructors’ championship, Sainz believes that the SF-23 overall proved to be slightly faster than the W14, but the problems of constancy and consistency throughout the of the season, which on several occasions led the Maranello team to not materialize the episodes in the race. However, Sainz believes that, however, there are positive aspects to take from this championship regarding the team, with the hope of having a more competitive package for next year.
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo F1 Team, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing, Carlos Sainz, Scuderia Ferrari Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
“There were moments when we were fast, there were others when Mercedes was quick. There were some episodes of unreliability here and there, I think overall we had a faster car but they were more consistent than us. It is certainly a season in which the team has made a lot of progress, the team has made a lot of progress, it has learned a lot about the car and the tyres, something that we can take into consideration for next year hoping for a more competitive package.”
On a personal level, Sainz is still happy with his season, even if the last two races turned out to be rather negative for him, both in terms of performance (Abu Dhabi) and bad luck (Las Vegas with the impact against the manhole in FP1 ). Appointments which, from his point of view, do not give a clear image of his season, in which he was also the only one to break the Red Bull dominance by winning the victory in Singapore: “I think it was a good year for me. I’m clearly not happy with how these last two races went, they are black spots on my season. I think I had a better championship than these last two races show, everything went wrong in these last two Grands Prix, but that’s how it went. Sometimes it goes like this. Normally the end of the season is my strong point, but this year for some reason it didn’t go like that, we have to sit down and analyze what I could have done better for these last races and come back stronger”, added the Madrid native.
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