Not a lot can be said regarding the tactical work done by the Maranello garage in the 2021 United States Grand Prix: with Charles Leclerc things went smoothly: the Monegasque driver was immediately faster than Ricciardo’s McLaren, as the first pit stop was made to cover Daniel’s pit call, as the advantage of 5 ‘is largely sufficient to maintain the position against him. Returning to the track from the pit stop Charles will lose his position to Valtteri Bottas for a moment, but the advantage given by the new Hard tyres will allow him to create a gap in a few laps.
With the C2 the race of the Monegasque lights up. In the second stint, Carlos was able to gain an advantage over his pursuers and even aim for Sergio Perez. Unfortunately the pace of the SF21 car, even if good and in some cases better than Checo, will not allow Charles to satisfy his fighting instinct. From here the race takes on a solitary aspect which however puts the men of the Maranelo team in a good mood. From now to the end of the season, this must be the goal: To be able to stay ahead of McLaren and demonstrate its superiority.
For Carlos Sainz, however, things did not go so well. Also in this case, if we analyze the choices made by the pit wall, everything was in order. After a worse start than expected given the fact that he was the only one with the Softs (Carlos will also have to give the position back to Norris in order not to receive a penalty during the first lap), the pace of his SF21 will allow him to remain in sixth position between the papaya cars and to chase Ricciardo at a distance of 4 ”. The first stop takes place at the end of lap 11 in response to that of Norris and simultaneously with Daniel. The positions remain unchanged.
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With the three all on the Hard compound, Carlos Sainz ‘shows his muscles’. The pace is better than that of the Australian, so on lap 29 he tries to pass the McLaren by stopping to put on the second set of hard tires. The gap between Daniel and Carlos is 2 ‘. Unfortunately, the stop is a few seconds slower than expected (5’6) and this will take away from Carlos Sainz any chance of overtaking Ricciardo with his strategy. A shame. The Spaniard shows that he has a good pace also in the third stint, but unfortunately a contact with Daniel, in which he will damage a part of the front wing, will take away any other possibility of a fight and will also lead him to be overtaken by Bottas in the final. .
Carlos Sainz thus passes from the possibility of grabbing the 5th position to finish in 7th place. Ferrari therefore wastes the opportunity to regain third place in the constructors’ standings and take the lead over rivals to 2.5 points. However, the race showed good pace and good tire management from the Ferrari drivers. Quality, which if confirmed also in the last few races, will guarantee a good final part of the season (with the Texan result McLaren now still holds the third position with a small margin of 3.5 points over the Italian team).
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