Before a Red Bull that allowed Max Verstappen to take a comfortable victory that cost him just 18 laps, Carlos Sainz and his team had nothing to do but resign themselves to try to turn it around in Zandvoort.
In the 154 grand prix that he has contested to date in Formula 1, Carlos Sainz as he has only come out in first position in two of them: the last British GP, where he finally managed to win, and this weekend in Belgium.
The significant sanctions with which Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc faced this weekend they turned Sergio Pérez into their greatest enemyand the #55 managed to keep him at bay both in qualifying and in the race… at least for a few laps, because the Red Bulls set a pace that was impossible to match.
«We started well, we made a good start after the safety car, but we had no rhythm»
relegated to the 3rd positionSainz stretched the soft tires with which he had started the race for 13 laps, through the medium of Pérez, moving first to the medium and finally to the hard to close the 44 laps of the Belgian Grand Prix.
The george russell threat just behind the man from Madrid became more and more latent, but ultimately Sainz was able to partially recover the pace to leave him behind and keep a podium that Ferrari knows little about.
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No option to replicate
“Unfortunately it has been even harder than we expected», confessed Sainz collapsed before the microphones. “We started well, we made a good start after the safety car, but we didn’t have the pace.”
in a day of more heat, which caused the entire grid to degrade the tires more than expected, Ferrari could not do anything against those commanded by Christian Horner on the circuits. “Our tires were overheating and we were sliding a lot, and for some reason our package hasn’t been up to scratch this weekend,” he added.
«In the end we have achieved a podium, and we accept it», he continued. Asked if he thought he could keep Russell from behind when Russell started attacking him, Sainz was blunt. “No”, he revealed, although the distance at first was reduced very quickly and then widened again, showing an attitude that makes Ferrari proud.
«The first two laps have been strong, but then we have gone on to have a high degradation and I realized that we were downgrading more than we should have. Red Bull, Max and ‘Checo’ were in their own league today, and we couldn’t fight them. We have had to survive, we will have to learn why we have not been so competitive here », he explained.
Formula 1 has returned with a triplet of which we have already consumed the first installment, with a championship still to be decided but in which everything seems already resolved. «Zandvoort should be a better circuit for usand Monza should be for Red Bull, but let’s see what happens,” Sainz concluded.