McLaren’s Carlos Sainz was relieved to score handy points in F1 Spanish GP as he elaborated his tight fight with Red Bull Racing’s Alexander Albon.
McLaren’s Sainz will not have been expecting to be 16 points behind his teammate after six races of the 2020 F1 season, but such have been his unorthodox struggles thus far in this equally unorthodox year, especially after his high last season.
His opening round was one to be proud of, as he came home fifth, but the Styrian GP that followed saw him manage only ninth – a result he replicated in Hungary, much to his own chagrin. Then, a tyre failure in the first Silverstone race, compounded by a poor 70th Anniversary GP’ saw him score no points in the two races on British soil.
He suffered from deep-rooted cooling issues for many of these F1 races – something which can be credited with for his poor showing in the second race in Britain – but at Spain, these were finally resolved, the result of which was a race that looks to be the first of many to get the Spaniard’s season back on track.
He returned to the familiar territory of the top six – albeit he was on the fringes of this group – and for this, he was rather buoyant post-race. “It went well and to be honest, it was a bit of a relief for me because I didn’t have the start of the season I wanted with a lot of things out of my control going wrong,” started Sainz. “To get a result like this boosts confidence, fighting with the Racing Points was nice to see.
Part of the solution to his consequential cooling problem was the on-site installment of a new engine, as well as the use of a new chassis. Sainz was happy with the results seen after these changes, as he also applauded the pit crew.
“Definitely, changing the engine made a bit of a difference to my qualifying performance and race performance, getting to run the bodywork the normal way, [and] taking a bit of [extra] power,” said Sainz. “Also, nothing went wrong as we are having these races with eight seconds pit stops, so to finally get a race with a normal pit stop is also good news for the mechanics, I think, they will feel a lot more confident going into the future.”
In fact, Sainz gained a place on Red Bull Racing’s Alex Albon, who had a struggling run. It was a bit close when they fought on track and on the radio, the Thai suggested that his adversary’s tactics were outside of the rules. No penalties, though, were applied.
“Alex tried the undercut and we were actually defending,” said Sainz. “I wasn’t sure of the grip on the medium tyres out of the box as it was taking 4-5 corners to feel grippy and he attacked me then. I was checking my mirrors and changing switches when he came, I could defend but it was tight
“It would be bad to say that I wanted to put him off at Turn 4, I did give him that space, but when you are inside, you are entitled to run someone wide if you want. It was the only chance I had to stay ahead of him, I knew I could pull away on the fresher tyres.
“So, I needed to put an extra aggression to hold on. We all do shout about dangerous and if I was in his place, I would have said something on the radio but as racing drivers, it is on the limit within the rules,” summed up Sainz.
Here’s how F1 Spanish GP panned out
Here’s Carlos Sainz on Max Verstappen
