“One of the most difficult cars to overtake”– Carlos Sainz on competing against McLaren

Tanish Chachra | 24/07/2021
"One of the most difficult cars to overtake"– Carlos Sainz on competing against McLaren

“One of the most difficult cars to overtake”– Carlos Sainz claims McLaren is difficult to compete against, as it has several strengths.

Carlos Sainz switched sides from McLaren to Ferrari this year and now is competing against the former for the P3 sport in the constructors’ table.

Despite Ferrari taking a podium last week, McLaren is still above the Maranello based team by 15 points. Thus, Sainz confesses that his former team is a difficult side to compete.

“Unfortunately, it has happened to me now a few times that stuck behind a McLaren I am not able to pass,” Sainz said after finishing sixth in Ricciardo’s wake.

“It’s not news, they have a very strong straightline speed, very strong deployment and power on exit of corners and it is probably one of the most difficult cars to overtake.”

Left behind McLaren

During the British Grand Prix, a failed overcut on Daniel Ricciardo was failed by Sainz and Ferrari due to a poor pitstop from Ferrari, which left the Spaniard in the pit box for ten extra seconds while his front-left wheel was tightened.

Hence, Sainz had to settle a spot behind Ricciardo, and the Australian fetched his highest position with the Woking-based team since his debut for them this year.

“Yeah, unfortunately, we were a step behind Ricciardo the whole race,” he added. “First on the medium, then we actually managed to overcut him with a robust pace during the cleaner laps, but unfortunately, after the slow pitstop, I had to go behind him again.

“On the hard tyre, it was even more difficult to overtake him because it just felt like the hard tyre in the high speed could not take the load of the dirty air, and I was understeering a lot more, and I couldn’t keep up with him in the high speed.

“Even though I had DRS I wasn’t close enough to him to try to get him.”

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
carlos sainz Daniel Ricciardo ferrari McLaren

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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