Carlos Sainz has explained how minimal track time this weekend and traffic were the contributing factors behind his shock exit in Q2 at Formula 1’s Dutch Grand Prix.
Ferrari was braced to encounter a troubling weekend at Zandvoort, but Sainz’s problems were accentuated as a gearbox gremlin saw him miss out on mileage in FP2.
The Spaniard was unable to compensate in the final practice session as wet weather and Logan Sargeant’s huge shunt restricted the Ferrari driver to a pitiful six laps.
Sainz has conceded his limited track experience prior to qualifying hampered him, but he suspects that Q3 was achievable without Nico Hulkenberg blocking his path.
“I was still keeping my hopes up given that I normally get up to speed very quickly and I could make it through Q3 today,” Sainz told media including Motorsport Week.
“Given the fact that I’ve been three weeks without touching the car, no dry running yesterday in a track like Zandvoort, we haven’t touched the Soft tyre.
“Tricky balance, tricky wind, not our fastest track for us for sure, and yeah, all these things adding up.
“Plus a bit of traffic in sector 2 with Nico, it cost me probably Q3, but yeah, maybe I was being optimistic by believing we could make it.”
Sainz was under threat in the closing stages in Q1, but he then produced a stellar lap to elevate his Ferrari up to third, with Leclerc situated one place behind in fourth.
The outgoing Ferrari driver has pinpointed not having prior knowledge of how to manage an evolving track could explain his failure to match his team-mate during Q2.
“I think it was more obviously me getting two sets of new tyres in, obviously at that stage I was there and thereabouts with Charles,” he explained.
“But then in Q2 I just lacked the experience of yesterday, knowing what to do with the front wing, with the tyres, to set up the car for a new soft in Q2.
“I paid the price, not easy after the break as I said, not to do any laps on FP1, FP2, FP3 and go straight into quali with a Soft tyre around Zandvoort, pushing flat out.
“Felt like I did some strong laps given the circumstance, but in the end, just the end click with a bit of traffic, it was always going to be tricky.”
Leclerc would advance through into the pole position shootout, but the Monegasque wound up ninth-tenths behind the benchmark lap McLaren’s Lando Norris posted.
Sainz has admitted that the margin exceeded even Ferrari’s predictions and exposed the SF-24’s struggles relative to its rivals’ cars through winding, slow-speed turns.
“I think this weekend, this week, the last few races we’ve been two to four-tenths of the McLaren on the Red Bull, depending on the circuit.
“We expected to be four or five tenths, to be nine is a lot more than what we expected.
“And it just shows that we have a clear weakness in these long combined corners that we have in Zandvoort.
“I expect us to be more competitive in Monza and Singapore, but here it just shows how far we’ve got left if we want to out-qualify a McLaren one day after being nine-tenths off.”
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