Carlos Sainz said he and Ferrari “couldn’t have got it worse” with the timing of his puncture during the Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix.
Shortly after Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas struck a loose wing mirror on the approach to Turn 1 at the Lusail International Circuit, both Sainz and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton were struck by punctures.
The cause of the punctures, be it debris or strenuous tyre wear at the high-speed Qatar venue is undetermined, but the impact was profound, especially for Sainz.
Sainz rued the timing of his puncture, coming just as he started a lap and forcing him to complete a tour of 5.419km circuit with a hampered Ferrari.
“I think we couldn’t have got it worse, you know, we had a puncture pretty much coming out of the last corner or around the last sector, then it meant I needed to do a full lap on a punctured tyre, using a lot of race time, then we had a slow pit stop during that slow puncture, and then as soon as I came out of the pits they put the Safety Car out,” Sainz said as he described the perfect storm of unfortunate events.
“So everyone can take their stop, and I’ve lost a lot of time with the puncture and the pit stop under racing conditions, and then a Safety Car comes out exactly while I’m exiting the pit, so couldn’t have been any worse.”
Despite the disappointing setback, Sainz was able to take solace that he recovered to his starting position, sixth, by the time the chequered flag fell in Qatar.
“I started P6, I finished P6 with everything that happened, and I had to race probably with some damage in the car for the rest of the race, Sainz said.
“Yeah, a bit of a nightmare day, and bringing home a P6 maybe is not as terrible as it now feels, but yeah, at least the other car could get maximum points available for Charles [Leclerc, P2], and I think it’s damage limitation with everything that happened.”
Ferrari puncture caused by ‘perfect storm,’ says Carlos Sainz
Sainz believed several factors at play led to his disastrous puncture, saying “it was a bit of a perfect storm.
“I think everyone was running very low on the front left tyre in terms of tread, I think no one had much tread left, this exposes obviously the tyre and the carcass to a puncture, and then the sharp kerbs, the gravel on the track, the debris, could have been any of them the cause of the puncture, we will never know.
“I just know that I got the worst of it because I had to do a full lap punctured, plus a slow pit stop, plus the damage, plus a Safety Car when I came out of the pit.”
Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur, meanwhile, decreed that “for sure, tyre wear is not helping, but there is not the puncture, it is the debris.”
Vasseur even admitted that “the plan was to pit even later on. On one car, we pitted because of the puncture. On the other one, that was the safety car. But the initial plan was to pit even later than this.”
Safety Car took ‘more than too long’ to appear in Qatar GP
A debated factor in the Qatar GP was the delayed Safety Car intervention following the loose wing mirror that was flung clear from Alex Albon’s Williams on Lap 30.
For several laps the situation was managed by double waved yellow flags and the Safety Car was only called after Bottas struck the mirror and Sainz and Hamiltons uffured punctures.
Sainz was frustrated by this, especially since his ordeal was over by the time the Safety Car was called.
“[It took] more than too long, I wish it could have come out while I was having a puncture so no one could overtake me, or no one could profit from the Safety Car, or we could all profit from the Safety Car given that two cars [had punctures],” Sainz said.
“That lap that I did on a punctured car, clearly there was something going on and I had to do a full lap and a very slow pit stop before the Safety Car came out, which is the most frustrating part of it.”
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