Despite Scuderia Ferrari’s lack of competitiveness against the leading Red Bull cars of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz still believes that the Maranello team executed the optimal strategy during the Miami Grand Prix, which can be seen as a rare highlight from the race weekend at the Miami International Autodrome in Florida, USA.
Carlos Sainz started the Miami Grand Prix in third place on the grid but dropped to fifth by the end of the race, while his teammate Charles Leclerc finished in seventh place.
The Spaniard made his pit stop on Lap 18 and initially managed to overtake Fernando Alonso when the Aston Martin driver pitted a few laps later. However, the undercat move performed by the Maranello team was eventually cancelled by the poor race pace of the Ferrari SF-23 car with hard tyres, as Fernando Alonso’s was clearly faster in the second part of the race. The Aston Martin man was therefore able to easily overtake the Spaniard just a few laps later. Later in the race, George Russell also passed Carlos Sainz, showing the complete lack of competitiveness for the 2023 Ferrari Formula 1 car on the hard tyres in Miami.
Although the fact that Carlos Sainz was penalized with a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane on his only pit stop, this did not have an impact on his final result, as the Ferrari driver finished 13 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
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In his post-race comments, Carlos Sainz stated that Scuderia Ferrari’s call to use the undercut strategy was the right decision, and that the SF-23’s overall lack of speed prevented him from achieving a higher finishing position than fifth in the 2023 Miami Grand Prix.
“We went for the undercut and it worked,” – the Spanish driver explained in a discussion with the reports following the fifth round of the 2023 Formula One championship – “[But] with the car we have right now, we have very little flexibility to try undercuts and overcuts, but in terms of strategy it was the right call at the right time. With hindsight, I think we were never going to finish higher than Fernando.” – he pointed out.
“I had to stay under the limit for the rest of the race if I wanted to make it to the end, and with the wind conditions, and how tough we are on tyres, that Hard stint just became too long for us. We did the right thing. The Medium worked very well for me. It was when we put on the Hard tyres and had to do longer stints that we struggled more than the others.” – Carlos Sainz concluded.
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