Carlos Sainz reckons Ferrari found a sweet spot in F1 Dutch GP to do the unthinkable and clear Sergio Perez in a fine recovery.
It was a turnaround for Ferrari which was unexpected for the drivers and alike in F1 Dutch GP at Zandvoort. While Charles Leclerc ended up on the podium, Sainz climbed back up from the fag end of the Top 10 to be a solid fifth in the end.
Already on the laps to the grid, Sainz felt good with the car and once the grand prix started, they could stretch the tyres in the stint. He was particularly pleased to pass the Red Bull of Perez and also the two Mercedes cars, finishing close to the podium.
“Honestly, after qualifying, I was a bit pessimistic by the way the day went and the weekend had been going,” said Sainz to media. “In the race, straightaway from the laps to the grid, it felt good on high fuel than qualifying in low fuel. I felt like we could do a bit better than the prediction of P7 and P8 in a good race behind the top cars.
“But yeah, very quickly I managed to pass the midfield and found myself in a good spot with the tyres and the pace, and we started to attack Perez and Russell to actually, in the end, pass them, and yeah to finish 6-7 seconds from the podium, I think it was a really good performance,” summed up Sainz, who doesn’t think it is fuel thing.
The difference from qualifying and race is down to tyres and its usage rather than fuel. “It was okay, I don’t think it was the fuel, it was something to do with the tyres, the window of the tyres, the way we switched them in quali to…actually protecting them in the race, clearly we managed to keep them alive and we managed to push them pretty hard as opposed to the others, who were struggling a bit more with tyre management.
“And to even be able to pass a Red Bull in a tough track like this is just shows that the car must have been in a sweet spot and I was driving really well, so really proud of that,” summed up Sainz, as Perez was a bit letdown to end up sixth and a bit far off the Spaniard in the order, having started well ahead of him.
Perez thinks Red Bull were suffering more than its rivals. “I’m not happy, we didn’t have the pace,” he said to media. “We are still really hard on tyres and our medium-speed performance was very weak. I think taking turns 9, and 10 out of the circuit, I think without it we would look a lot more competitive.
“I think we were suffering a lot with the conditions with the tailwind and probably McLaren and Ferrari was not suffering that much. I think the positive thing is that we understand now what’s going on with the car, that’s really positive. It’s just a question of how quickly we can fix the issues that we have but we know where we’re lacking and where we’re not.
“And I think going forward hopefully we can pick it up and come to Monza we can be a lot more competitive. I think there are a lot of things that will stay within the team but I think right now the main focus is to understand the issue. We know we have clearly, the way we have developed the car we’ve lost some path and we’re definitely trying to bring it back.”
Here’s Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri on Dutch GP fight
Here’s Max Verstappen, Lando Norris on Dutch GP fight
Here’s how F1 Dutch GP panned out
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