Two moments in which Carlos Sainz did not make his pitstop cost the Spanish driver P6 at the Losail International Circuit, which created an opportunity for Aston Martin Formula 1 driver Lance Stroll to undercut him in the pitstops and finish ahead of the Ferrari driver in the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix.
Carlos Sainz did not have the best start and lost two places after starting from P5, after a moment at Turn 1 while having a look around the outside of McLaren driver Lando Norris, which allowed Max Verstappen to overtake him. This also helped Alpine’s Esteban Ocon to have a go at him and pass him at Turn 2.
Carlos kept seventh place during the first part of the Qatar Grand Prix ahead of Lance Stroll and could have finished in P6 given the fact that Ferrari chose a one-stop strategy, while Pierre Gasly went for a two-stop race which did not prove efficient.
The Aston Martin driver made his only pitstop at the end of lap 23, while Ferrari wanted to react and called Carlos Sainz in. Despite the fact that Carlos did hear the request, he noted over the radio that Esteban Ocon in front of him had suffered a lockup and would likely need to box, so the Spanish driver saw the opportunity to extend the stint in the hope of overtaking the Alpine driver.
This should have given him the chance to undercut Ocon, or overcut him. At that stage, Lance Stroll was in a small gap down in 13th place, 4.5s behind Pierre Gasly, but still just outside Carlos Sainz’s pit window, which meant the Maranello team could afford to keep Carlos on track for a few more laps. Esteban Ocon did make his pit stop, so Carlos Sainz continued and attempted to extract the remaining performance from his medium tyres. While it was soon clear he wouldn’t be able to overcut Ocon given the pace, he would have covered Stroll had he pitted at the end of lap 26. Twice he was told to “box” on that lap, as well as being asked about what front wing flap adjustment he required.
At the start of lap 26, Carlos Sainz asked about his pace and was told “not good enough, you need to push more”. Then shortly after he was told “mode box” with the message repeated shortly afterwards followed by the flap angle question. The Spanish driver did not confirm over the radio that he would be stopping. Presumably, he will also not have hit the pit confirm button on the steering wheel, which should have alerted the pitwall that he had not heard the call.
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The Maranello team did not confirm what happened and whether some technical problem prevented Carlos Sainz from receiving the radio message, or he simply failed to register the instructions while attempting to extract the maximum pace from his worn starting set of medium compounds.
As a result, he continued past the pit entry, asking at the last minute “am I boxing or not”. He was told he should have but then said “I didn’t hear you” and twice apologised on the basis that “I didn’t hear it”. But the pace on that extra lap meant he stopped and emerged from the pits just behind Stroll, who he chased but couldn’t pass for the rest of the race.
“We need to review what happened there with the radio because I didn’t hear a box call and maybe we lost out a bit by that call. It has been a bit of a boring race for me because we were very concerned about the tyres and I was saving tyres all the race, thinking about that front left that was giving so many headaches to other teams. In the end maybe that safe approach paid off because the others did mistakes, but from my side, couldn’t really push the whole race and it was a bit of a boring one. But it’s what it is, we will try and push more in the next ones to see if we can enjoy them a bit more.” – Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz concluded.
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