In the early laps of the Austrian Grand Prix, it seemed evident that Carlos Sainz had a faster pace than Charles Leclerc. For this reason, the Spaniard, feeling comfortable with the SF-23 car, implicitly asked his teammate several times via team radio to let him pass. However, the Italian side chose not to make this maneuver. But was this the right choice? Journalists from Sky Sport F1 answered this question in their customary post-race discussion.
“At the beginning, it could have been a solution, but personally, I don’t like the idea of letting a teammate pass and then trying to regain the position. I prefer a free race,” said Davide Valsecchi. Marc Gené echoed the Italian’s sentiment, stating, “To do that, you have to be not just 2 or 3 tenths faster, but 5 or 6 tenths faster. Otherwise, Charles would have been in his slipstream, and by letting Carlos Sainz pass, he would have lost time, around 1 or 2 seconds. To me, Ferrari’s decision seemed right.” – the former Formula 1 driver pointed out.
“Ferrari should have done this last year”
Carlo Vanzini joined his colleagues, offering a different perspective to support their opinions. “In Ferrari, they are doing what they should have done last year, and it wasn’t done. They need to accumulate mileage regardless of the position. Carlos was going fast, and I understand that it’s frustrating. He even made a team radio request to try because he believed he could catch up to Max. However, the pit wall has a bigger picture and knows that Max Verstappen is unreachable. Therefore, they wanted to freeze a situation that is indeed a team game but is done to find a better performance for the car. Last year was different because it was for the championship, in favor of Charles Leclerc,” expressed the journalist.
Furthermore, Davide Valsecchi also defended the Maranello team’s choice for the pit stop during the Safety Car period, which cost Carlos Sainz three positions. “During the first stop, Carlos Sainz pitted behind his teammate, losing time because the team can’t perform miracles, and he was passed by three cars. So he had to rebuild everything. These are moments when the race doesn’t go in your favor, sometimes it unfortunately happens. He wanted to stay out with the first Safety Car, but it doesn’t mean it would have paid off. Some drivers did it, but it doesn’t guarantee success,” stated the former driver at the end of the Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg.
