Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz has claimed the spin that curtailed his participation in Formula 1’s Canadian Grand Prix derived from taking added risks to salvage some points.
The Spaniard started down in 12th place and lost more ground at the start to resign him to running behind slower rivals during the opening stint under wet conditions.
But Sainz was looking to make inroads in the closing laps on slicks when he span at Turn 6 and caught Alex Albon’s Williams to add to the damage he incurred earlier.
Sainz has admitted he was aiming to capitalise on the pace coming towards him in the latter stages as he elected to abandon caution in his strive to crack the top 10.
“It was one of those races where the pace never clicked,” Sainz lamented.
“We had some damage in the car from a couple of contacts that we had during that crazy race but there was never really enough pace today to make any overtakes.
“Only when we went on slicks there towards the end of a race I started to feel there was maybe potential for some points, and I was starting to become a bit quicker.
“I was just trying to take some risks to overtake people in the DRS trains to try and be close in sector two, probably touched maybe the wet [patch].
“I don’t know. It’s a very strange way that I lost it there in mid-corner and ended our race.”
“It was a very weak, very disappointing weekend for the whole team because we never seemed to find a good pace.”
Ferrari’s struggles at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve materialised as an unexpected surprise, with the SF-24’s compliance riding the kerbs having seen it tipped to thrive.
Sainz is optimistic the Maranello-based side’s woes will not evolve to be a regular occurrence, though, and suspects it emanated from tyre temperature in qualifying.
“I think Canada was a bit of a one-off, a bit of a special one and we need to understand what happened as a team.
“There was clearly something the others were doing in qualifying with the tyres to prep them better.”
Ferrari’s first double retirement since the 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix has allowed Red Bull to extend its advantage in the Constructors’ Championship up to 49 points.
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