Unlike Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz raced in the Austin GP with a 2-stop strategy and paid off. The Spaniard understood it was the right choice during the first stint of the race. Here’s why.
Charles Leclerc’s race in Austin was marred by a wrong strategy, the one-stop approach, which ultimately led him to finish in sixth place before race officials disqualified him for excessive wear on the rear plank of his SF-23 car.
The brighter side of the story this weekend was Carlos Sainz Jr.’s race. The Spanish driver secured a fourth-place finish, later upgraded to a podium finish after Lewis Hamilton’s disqualification for the same reason that affected Charles Leclerc.
Contrary to Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz was able to execute a 2-stop race strategy, perhaps due to the events that caused him to wear out his front tires more rapidly during the first stint. Carlos attempted to get into the DRS zone and stay in contact with the top three drivers, but in doing so, he quickly consumed his front tires. This is what led him to opt for the 2-stop strategy.
“I think we did a good job, very early because trying to keep up with Lewis and Max and stay in the DRS I destroyed my front tire in the first sector trying to stay within the DRS zone.” – he pointed out.
“For me, it was clear that I had to make two stops as soon as I changed the front tires, and from that moment on, honestly, I felt like I could push with the tires and be quite solid. Today I pushed to the maximum, and I managed the tires well. So, yes, for me, it was thanks to how the first stint went, no doubt, and then in the second stint, I could manage the fronts much better. And I was much faster.” – the Spaniard added.
Carlos Sainz, once again ahead of Charles Leclerc and now with a more substantial lead over him in the Drivers’ Championship, is proving to be much more effective in races than in qualifying. It’s the latter that has been his weak point in recent weekends, the fast lap in qualifying.
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“As far as I’m concerned, I already felt like I did a good job with the soft tires yesterday. So, I think I was relatively stronger in the race this weekend. I have to be careful in qualifying because my last two qualifying sessions haven’t been anything special. But in the race, I’m fast, I was in Suzuka, I was here, and now I have to focus on getting my qualifying pace back and continue to do a good job in the race because the race pace is definitely solid.” – the Ferrari man concluded.
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