Formula 1 special contributor and F1 expert Mark Hughes shares his thoughts on the issues encountered by Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz in the 2022 Australian Grand Prix, as Carlos had to retire on lap 2 after a series of unfortunate events that led to his error while trying to recover the lost ground at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne:
For Carlos Sainz “It all began going wrong in Q3” – Mark Hughes explains – “In Q2 he’d gone for two push laps to the one of Leclerc – and it had worked for him, giving him a time a couple of tenths faster than his team mate. For the first Q3 lap he was planning to do this again, meaning he needed to get out earlier in order to fit two runs into the session. There was a delay starting the car, later traced to an electrical problem with the steering wheel. His run plan was altered to do just one push lap after a single preparation lap to bring the tyres in. Getting out late, he was quickly into the groove. Leclerc had just set provisional pole but at the end of Sector 2 Sainz was going faster. He was 0.144s up. He was within sight of the start/finish line when a red flag was thrown for Fernando Alonso’s Turn 11 accident.” – Formula 1 technical expert Mark Hughes added, in a recent article for the Formula 1 official website.
“So as everyone sat in the pits waiting for the final Q3 runs to begin, Sainz had yet to set a time. Again, the plan was for a single tyre-prep lap before the attack lap. Again, the car refused to fire up. Leclerc left the pits to embark on what would be the pole lap. By the time they got Sainz’s car started there was no longer time for a prep lap – and on tyres nowhere near temperature he could only record the ninth-fastest time of the session. Even his Q2 time would have got him fourth on the grid, had he repeated it. But this was a disaster. Instead of the standard choice of mediums to start the race on, he and the team opted instead for hards – the theory being he could use the car’s pace as the slower medium-tyred cars pitted ahead of him, allowing him to overcut them with a much later stop. On the dummy grid the car yet again refused to fire up. In desperation the steering wheel was changed. That allowed the car to start – but the replacement steering wheel wasn’t properly set up.”
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“That and the low grip of the difficult-to-warm hard tyres meant he dropped to 14th – and then lost further places on the opening lap. Frustrated and trying to push on, he spun into the Turn 9-10 gravel trap on the second lap. It could hardly have been a more stark contrast in fortunes between those of his team mate. The point of divergence between them seemed to be nothing more than an electrical gremlin.” – Mark Hughes concluded.
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