Carlos Sainz crossed the finish line of Belgian GP in a sad seventh position, which became sixth with the disqualification by Russell. Yet everything seemed to be going right. At the start the Spanish driver was already sixth. Subsequently, despite the hards, the Ferrari number 55 had shown that it could fight for something more than what it had achieved at the end of the race. The strategy, perhaps not perfect, led Sainz to achieve a disappointing result.
Carlos Sainz finishes the Belgian GP only seventh
It won't be a happy summer break for Carlos Sainz. Competitiveness in Ferrari is still a distant mirage, just as his future in Formula 1 still seems certain on the horizon. Carlos Sainz, despite all the difficulties of the moment, tried to do the best of what he could. Certainly, compared to what we saw between Spain and England, Ferrari seems to have recovered something in terms of performance. But, with such close gaps, even a few tenths of difference can make a difference. Sainz had already encountered difficulties yesterday qualification, where he failed to put together a competitive ride. In fact, if the rain had benefited his teammate Charles Leclerc by allowing him to reach the front row, Sainz did not take advantage of it, thus settling for the seventh fastest time.
Seventh in qualifying, sixth in the race. At the start the Ferrari wall had thought of a diversified strategy for the Spaniard. Carlos Sainz showed up at the starting line of the Belgian GP with hard tyres. A choice that should have put him in difficulty at the start. Instead, after the first corners Sainz found himself sixth, between the English Lando Norris and George Russell. There Ferrari of the Spaniard had managed to maintain a good pace, extending the first stint compared to the opponents who were on soft tires and forced to pit stop first. The double-stop strategy, however, proved to be deficient, especially because the second tire change arrived too late compared to his rivals.
Sainz was critical of the strategy, but had no other choice
In the end, then, a single bitter satisfaction. Sainz, launched with fresh tyres, managed to gain the position over Sergio Perez, thus taking seventh place. The great work done during the first stint was thus sacrificed with two delayed pit stops, or so Carlos Sainz claimed in post-race interviews. “We had a risky first stint, because we started on the hard tires and this tire certainly allowed us to go very fast. All the courage we used to take this risk at the beginning was then lacking for the rest of the race. In the end we made two stops too late and were too far behind. We went for the double stop, while the one stop strategy with Russell was the most correct. Easy to say now as always. I felt good on the Hard tires and even in the last stint I was going very fast. But it was too late."
A Sainz with a critical tone towards the strategy implemented, but, at the same time, also resigned. In fact, looking at the race in hindsight, the impression is that Ferrari number 55 could not aspire to different solutions. Russell found himself opting for the one-stop strategy as he started on the soft tyres, then skipping the compound change at the first stop on the hard tyres. Sainz, on the contrary, found himself on yellow tires in the second stint, which certainly would not have allowed him to finish the grand prix without stopping. The initial risk of starting on the hard tyres, therefore, excluded other possible strategies for the Spanish rider.
