Following the use of its strategies to provide Charles Leclerc the pole position for the French Grand Prix, Carlos Sainz claims that criticism of Ferrari’s F1 strategy decisions has been unfair.
In recent races, Ferrari has faced criticism for making strategic decisions that have lost it significant victories, like as the choice to leave Leclerc’s worn tires on during the final safety car period of the British Grand Prix and the pit mistake that cost him the Monaco race.
However, Ferrari carried out a pre-weekend plan at Paul Ricard on Saturday to have Sainz tether Leclerc in his slipstream in Q3 to counteract Red Bull’s top speed advantage over the Scuderia along the back straight.
Leclerc, who acknowledges Ferrari made a mistake on the first Q3 lap, beat Max Verstappen to the pole by 0.304 seconds, proving that everything went according to plan.
Due to a change in power unit components, Sainz will start from the rear of the grid. He claims Ferrari’s qualifying strategy demonstrated how “solid” the squad is tactically.
At Paul Ricard, Ferrari made the decision to accept its grid penalty because Sainz should still have possibilities for mounting a strong comeback through the pack.
Sainz said, “I don’t have a reference and especially we have half the season left and with the way I’m performing on track right now, with how fast I was in Q2, how fast I was in Austria, in Silverstone, I think it’s not worth worrying about this.
