At Ferrari they clearly gambled on a safety car with Carlos Sainz. In the end that did not happen and Ferrari lost the battle with Mercedes for second place in the constructors’ championship. However, Sainz defended the choice to gamble on a safety car.
The race weekend had already started badly for Sainz with a serious crash during the second practice session, then there was the elimination in Q1, which forced him to start the race from P16. Sainz completed the race on a two-stop basis, first completing two stints on the hard tire compound and then making a pit stop on a different tire type just before the start of the final lap.
It was a strategy in which Ferrari hoped for a safety car, which is indeed often the case in Abu Dhabi, but which did not happen this time. As a result, Sainz ultimately finished the race in eighteenth and fell from fourth to seventh place in the drivers’ championship. Sainz and Ferrari said they had nothing to lose by taking that approach.
“We started on the hard tire compound with the idea that the car would ‘help’ us towards a nstopper,” Sainz said after the race. “As we have seen many times this season, our car experiences more difficulties when we start on the hard tire compound.”
“We had nothing to lose as I started the race from P16. We gave it everything and it didn’t turn out well in the end. On the hard tire compound I was sliding at the beginning of the race, due to the ‘dirty air’.”
“It just didn’t work out for us. Then we saw a very small chance of scoring points if we stayed outside in the hope that a safety car would come and that ultimately did not work.”
According to Sainz, Ferrari must now do everything it can in the coming period to be there again next year and take a big step forward.
“The last two race weekends, this past weekend in particular, have not gone the way I expected and how I wanted to end the year,” said Sainz. “To be honest, I am very disappointed and obviously not happy that we have so narrowly lost the battle for second place in the constructors’ championship.”
“We will now sit down together and analyze what we could have done better today and what happened. The speed this weekend and my general feeling in the car this weekend was clearly not good.”