In Canada, Sainz's strategy weighed down by the safety car

Eleventh career podium but still no victory for Sainz in Formula 1. However, the Spaniard did not get far on Sunday, during the Canadian Grand Prix. In fact, he was even well placed to win, but the safety car deployed 20 laps from the finish thwarted Ferrari's plans. Iñaki Rueda, Chief Strategy Officer at Team, returned to the progress of the race to Carlos Sainz.

First VSC: Sainz, opposite Verstappen

First of all, the start: the Ferrari driver starts 3rd behind Verstappen et Alonso. Starting on the same set of tires as his opponents, Sainz aimed to quickly catch up with the Dutchman. “We all started with the medium tires, with which we thought we would do 20-25 laps. Carlos first had to overtake Fernando Alonso, which he did, before chasing Verstappen. »

First twist, the virtual safety car deployed on lap 7, after Pérez's retirement. For Ferrari, the main thing was to choose a strategy that was different from that of the driver Red Bull. “We already knew that the race was going to be between us and Verstappen only. We felt we had a good enough race pace to try anything and still finish ahead of the rest of the peloton. So we decided to do a strategy opposite to that of Verstappen. He stopped on lap 7, so we stayed on the track. »

With a better than expected race pace, the Spaniard was able to take advantage of his leading position to maintain the lead. “ Carlos was able to have some precious fresh air in front of him. From lap 7 to lap 19, Carlos was leading the race and Verstappen couldn't get any closer. In our head we had Carlos on a one-stop strategy and Verstappen on a two-stop strategy. »

Second VSC: (almost) perfect timing

Stroke of luck for Ferrari: a second virtual safety car is deployed, this time to evacuate the car from Schumacher at turn 8. The Scuderia therefore decided to take advantage of it. “It wasn't the ideal time for a one-stop strategy but it was very close. So we decided to arrest Carlos. He came in and the VSC was removed when we were in the pit lane… Instead of having fully benefited from the advantage of a VSC, we only took three quarters of it. It was always better than nothing,” explains Iñaki Rueda.

At this point in the race, Sainz was therefore well placed to attempt the one-stop strategy. “After the 2nd VSC, the race was on. Verstappen led the race with one more stop to make, while Carlos had to go to the end on his set of hard tires. On lap 43, Verstappen stopped for his final stop and he was chasing behind us. It would have been very interesting to see if he had enough pace to overtake Carlos at the end. »

Safety car: hasty change of strategy

But luck left the Ferrari stand on the 49th lap, when Yuki tsunoda planted his Alpha Tauri in the barriers at the 2nd turn. The safety car appeared on the track, forcing the Scuderia to hastily change strategy. “The Safety Car was deployed just 3 seconds before Carlos entered the pits. We had to make a decision very quickly to change the tires. At that point we converted our strategy from one stop to two stops,” admits the head of Ferrari strategy.

The Italian team also had a decision to make between two tire compounds to finish the race. “We had the choice between new hard tires or new soft tires. We evaluated the two options: the softs would have been good for the first laps after the restart, but we would have suffered at the end of the race. The hard guys were faster after 3-4 laps. Since the cars do not have DRS in the first 2 laps after the restart, we felt that the hard tires were best placed to be able to attack Verstappen 3-4 laps after the restart. And we saw it, Carlos was able to battle with him until the end of the race. »

Unfortunately for Ferrari, Sainz was unable to overtake the reigning world champion before the finish. While the Scuderia can't blame themselves over strategy, Canada's race could leave a little feeling of regret. In Montreal, the Maranello team achieved a victory that had eluded them since Australia at the beginning of April.

ALSO READ > Sergio Pérez injured in neck during crash in Montreal