Sainz accepts he ‘misjudged’ grip before costly spin

Carlos Sainz accepts that he “misjudged” how much grip was available prior to his spin at the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.

The Ferrari driver was forced to retire from the race while stuck in the gravel on the exit of Turn 12.

As Sainz approached Turn 11, he attempted to go around the outside of Haas’ Mick Schumacher, before losing control of the car and spinning across the grass and into the gravel.

“I clearly made a mistake but when the tyre was probably not ready to start overtaking,” Sainz said. 

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“I misjudged the grip and I made a mistake which cost me the retirement so clearly not perfect, I haven’t been perfect this weekend.

“We haven’t been perfect as a team clearly and we need to analyse what we did wrong and see if we can come back better.”

Sainz endured a difficult weekend as he qualified in ninth place on Saturday, leaving him with work to do for the grand prix.

However, a disastrous start saw him slip further places in the order, which he admits prompted him to be aggressive to make up the positions again.

“We had again a problem with the steering wheel, similar problem to [Saturday], there were a few buttons that were not working,” he said. 

“We had to change the steering wheel but it meant that the steering wheel was not well positioned for the start and we triggered anti stall on both starts because of the clutch and the torque.

“Because of that obviously I was on the backfoot and I tried to make up the places at the first three laps.”

Sainz’s team-mate Charles Leclerc went on to win the race, taking his and Ferrari’s second victory of the 2022 campaign.