Charles Leclerc saw his race in Austin ruined by a wrong strategy, the one-stop strategy, which led him to finish in sixth place before the race stewards disqualified him for excessive wear of the rear part of the skate on his SF -23.
The other side of the moon, the one illuminated by the sun, was Carlos Sainz Jr.’s race this weekend. The Madrid driver took home a fourth place, which then became the podium after Lewis Hamilton’s disqualification for the same reason that he put Leclerc out.
Sainz, unlike Leclerc, was able to take advantage of a two-stop race strategy, perhaps also thanks to the events that led him to ruin his front tires more quickly in the first stint. Carlos tried to enter the DRS zone and stay in contact with the top three but, in doing so, he quickly wore out the front tyres. Here is what led him to undoubtedly choose the two stops.
“I think we did a good job, very early on because trying to keep up with Lewis and Max and maintain the DRS I destroyed my front tire in the first sector trying to keep inside the DRS zone.”
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23 Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W14
“It was clear to me that I would have to make two stops as soon as I changed the front tyres, and from then on, honestly, I felt like I could push with the tires and that I was quite solid.”
“Today I pushed hard and managed the tires well. So yes, for me it was thanks to how the first stint went which is unquestionable, and then in the second stint I was able to manage the front tires much better. And I was very faster”.
Sainz, once again ahead of Leclerc and now with a wider margin over him in the Drivers’ World Championship, is proving to be much more effective in the race than in qualifying. It is precisely this last point that has slowed him down over the last few weekends, the fastest lap in qualifying.
“For me, already yesterday I had the feeling that I did a good job with the soft tires. So I think that in the race I was relatively stronger this weekend.”
“I have to pay attention to qualifying, because in the last two races my qualifying wasn’t anything special. But in the race I’m fast, I was fast in Suzuka, I was fast here, and now I have to concentrate on recovering my pace in qualifying and continue to do a good job in the race, because the race pace is definitely solid.”
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