Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto pointed out that the race director needs to be able to make “sharper decisions” after the Italian side’s boss believes a very late decision was made to deploy the Safety Car in the 2022 Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.
Carlos Sainz was in front when AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda suffered a crash at the pit lane exit. The moment was covered under yellow flags initially before the Safety Car was deployed by race director Eduardo Freitas. Scuderia Ferrari was waiting for the ideal opportunity to pit Carlos Sainz who was still running on the first set of hard tyres and the Maranello team of course wanted to capitalize on Yuki Tsunoda’s crash to pit the Spanish driver during a Safety Car period. But as Carlos Sainz neared the pit lane entrance at the end of the lap, the Safety Car had not yet been deployed.
By the time the decision was made by the race director, Mattia Binotto revealed that his team only had a second to inform Carlos to enter the pits:
“I think it took very long to decide for the Safety Car. At the moment Carlos was leading the race and I think that the Safety Car was released when he was just at the end of the main straight coming to the last corner. The team has been very, very good in reacting, and the driver himself as well in coming into the pit. I think we had only one second to react and we reacted within one second. Without that good reactions it would have been a very difficult and bad situation for Carlos. And I think again here we need sharper decisions. It took very long, for me, to decide.” – he pointed out.
After Carlos Sainz made his pit stop he returned to the track in second place, behind the Red Bull of Max Verstappen and tried everything to overtake the Dutchman in the final laps of the race, in the end the Spanish driver had to settle for second place, as the F1-75 top speed did not seem strong enough even with the DRS open to challenge the Red Bull RB18 for the victory in Montreal.
Mattia Binotto explained it was “difficult to judge” if Carlos Sainz would have had a better chance to win the Safety Car being deployed, as Max Verstappen had made a second pit stop and was chasing him down with a fresh set of hards:
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“We know that in order to defend, he should have been very fast on-track, at least a 17.4, 17.3 single lap, because Max was very fast behind. It would have been very close, no doubt. We were judging ‘should we stay on track, should we pit,’ simply to protect as well from Lewis [Hamilton] that had fresh tyres as well and was very fast behind. So we were monitoring very close the situation. I think it’s very difficult to judge and to say how the race would have finished without the final Safety Car.” – he added.
Carlos Sainz’s strong pace in the race came as no surprise, Mattia Binotto wanted to highlight: “If you look at the race sim on Friday, Carlos was very strong already. I think we were very close to the Red Bulls. So we knew that we could fight. Carlos is gaining confidence with the car, he is driving faster and faster,” Mattia Binotto added. “And it’s good to see that today he was certainly as fast if not slightly faster than Max.” – the Ferrari boss concluded.
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