Carlos Sainz has admitted that Ferrari has a lot of “homework” to do to get on top of the tyre problems that blighted its weekend at Formula 1‘s Singapore Grand Prix.
Sainz was braced to endure an uphill task as a crash in Q3 resigned him to starting 10th and his prospects were hindered when he had to avoid contact on the first lap.
With overtaking proving tough, Ferrari decided to run an aggressive undercut to get Sainz track position over slower cars ahead, including team-mate Charles Leclerc.
But with Leclerc much quicker on newer tyres, Sainz let him through in the latter stages of the race, leaving the Spaniard to consolidate seventh at the chequered flag.
Sainz has admitted that the narrow operating window of the current Pirelli compound is something that Ferrari must aim to get a handle on to avoid similar setbacks.
“I think what keeps being a bit of a trend this year is that we have a very narrow window for the tyres to perform in our car this year,” Sainz told media including Motorsport Week.
“I think last year our car switched on the tyres whenever we wanted. This year seems to be a very fine line between getting them in the right window or not.
“So, yeah, we’re trying to figure that out from my side. I’m gonna focus during these next few weeks to see what I can do for the last six races to make that less of a limitation or less of a weakness and put ourselves further up, because then the race pace is always strong. So some homework to do on that side.”
Operational error behind Ferrari setback?
With tyre temperatures critical, Ferrari could be mistakenly heating the tyres to an incorrect window in the tyre blankets.
When asked, however, Sainz said the team had several theories.
In a concerning admission, Sainz claimed the Italian marque needs to give “special attention” to the issue to prevent a repeat of his qualifying crash.
“Obviously, we have theories right now, but I think unless you do the ideal perfect out-lap, the chance of not having the tyres in the right window is extremely tough for us,” he added.
“And as soon as there’s something happens out of our control, like having to let through traffic, having to go slow in sector two, having to queue a lot at the end of the pit lane, you’re a few degrees out of the operating window, and there’s zero grip, which is what caught me out and probably what caught Charles out into Turn 1.
“And doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do the mistakes that I did yesterday, but at the same time, it shows that we need to put special attention into that.
“Hopefully with that, once we put special attention into it, we can qualify a bit further up, and with our race pace, we can fight.”
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