Carlos Sainz was “very disappointed” after last weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix, with the Spaniard believing that his poor starts on Saturday and Sunday reduced the number of points he could’ve scored.
Ferrari struggled with their launches off the line both in the Sprint and in Sunday’s main race, something Sainz blamed the SF-23’s clutch for.
He informed the Maranello-based team over the radio that the side needed to “bin” the clutch, although team principal Frederic Vasseur believes the issue only lasted for one corner.
Sainz started Sunday’s race but was only able to progress to seventh, despite having gotten past Lewis Hamilton and even with Charles Leclerc retiring.
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Ferrari’s one-lap pace was very strong at Interlagos, although their race pace wasn’t the best.
Nevertheless, with George Russell having retired from the race and with Mercedes having struggled in general, Sainz believes Ferrari lost a huge opportunity to severely cut the Silver Arrows’ advantage in second in the Constructors’ Championship.
“[It was] the same as [Saturday] and the same as every single start that I’ve done this weekend,” Sainz told Motorsport.com.
“I’m very disappointed because it obviously cost us probably some points over the weekend.
“We had a problem since the beginning of practice. We weren’t able to really tune it and adapt it to the track and we have been struggling a lot with getaways and it’s such a shame.”
As mentioned, Leclerc retired from the race, in fact, he failed to even start it.
The Monegasque crashed on the formation lap following a suspected hydraulics issue, which caused Leclerc’s rear wheels to lock-up whilst he also lost power-steering.
Sainz was grateful that the same didn’t happen to him, although he again stressed that it was a missed opportunity for Ferrari.
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“Thank God nothing happened to me,” said Sainz.
“It’s a shame because I think with Charles in the race it would have been a great opportunity to take away points from Mercedes.
“But also, the car pace wasn’t great either. So, Aston [Martin], McLaren and Red Bull were up in front, and we couldn’t fight them really much. A missed opportunity, I think.”