Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz feels it may have been better for him to use the soft tyres for the final part of the 2022 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix, after he was not able to attempt an overtake on Red Bull’s Max Verstappen for the race win at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.
With 21 laps to go until the end of the race, the Safety Car was deployed in Canada due to a crash suffered by Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda, which Ferrari saw as an ideal chance to pit Carlos Sainz for fresh compounds rubber and continue the race just behind Max Verstappen, who had pitted six laps earlier. Scuderia Ferrari did not have any mediums left, which would have clearly been the best option for the Spanish driver and as a result, the Italian side decided for a new set of hard tyres.
However, Carlos Sainz explained that given the fact that the Canadian Grand Prix did not restart until there were 16 laps remaining, a better option might have been to risk using the soft tyre compound. In this way the Ferrari driver could have passed Max Verstappen and build a gap for the final 5-7 laps, when his tyres would have dropped in performance and the Dutchman most likely would have been faster:
“I was thinking about it now” – Carlos Sainz confirmed at the end of the Montreal event – “The Safety Car stayed out for a bit longer than maybe what I thought or what the team thought. By time it was green flag, there was only 16 or something laps left, which was the right number of laps to maybe try and put on a soft and try to overtake Max on the warm-up phase of the hard. Now, it’s easy to say. At the time, with still 20-something laps to go, the hard was definitely the fastest option to the to the flag, especially knowing that it was a bit of a fresher hard to Max. It’s a shame.” – he said.
Before the Safety Car came out at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Carlos Sainz had a gap of almost eight seconds over Max Verstappen, but at that stage it was the Dutchman who could rely on fresher tyres and was constantly faster than the Ferrari driver:
“I felt like without the Safety Car he wouldn’t have caught me easily. I think it would have been a good battle at the end. With him catching up on me, I was ready to hang it out there until the chequered flag. I was in good pace, I was still doing 17.3s, and I think we could have made it to the flag.” – Carlos feels.
The Ferrari driver admitted that he risked everything to overtake Max Verstappen in the final laps of the Canadian Grand Prix, but in the end he did not have enough of a pace advantage over the Red Bull RB18 to make a pass: “It was a tough, intense battle with Max. I knew I had a bit of pace delta on him from the whole race and I think it was five, six laps fresher [on] tyres. But to overtake around here you need to be more than those two or three tenths. I gave it all. I was risking everything over the kerbs, close to the wall and having a few moments out there in the dirty air. I got close a couple of times but not enough to really throw a move down the inside anywhere. But I can tell you I was pushing.” – he continued.
At the same time, the layout of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve did not make it easy for Carlos Sainz to remain close enough to his Red Bull rival to attempt an overtake using the DRS:
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“Without the DRS it’s impossible, because the DRS is still affecting you quite a lot, especially at this track that you cannot do different lines. It’s all chicanes that you have nowhere to put your front wing to avoid the understeer and the overheating of the tyres. But even like that I was happy and confident to be in the dirty air and managed to stay, even overheating, 16 laps in DRS. I could close, I think in lap three, as soon as the DRS opened. It was all about cooling the tyres and regaining the battery to try and really drain it when catching him.”
Despite the fact that he missued out on his first Formula 1 race win, Carlos Sainz believes his F1-75 car’s performance bodes well for the rest of the 2022 Formula 1 campaign:
“I left everything out there. Compared to a Red Bull today, we were quicker I think the whole race. First time the season that I think I can say that I was fastest man on track, which gives me some confidence and hope for the next races. But two or three tenths is not enough to pass a Red Bull, you need more like five, six tenths of pace delta if you really want to have any chance of passing Max.” – he concluded.
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