Despite having a great start to the Hungarian GP race, Carlos Sainz ultimately had to finish in P8. Sainz, who started his race from P11, went up to P6 in the blink of an eye. But in the end, he failed to keep his place and for that, he blames Ferrari’s strategy once again.
The Spanish star is of the opinion that his team’s decision to compensate Charles Leclerc’s poor pitstop with a position swap ruined the day for him. Leclerc had a poor pitstop that cost him 9.4 seconds in Lap 18. This happened after the pit crew failed to attach his car’s left rear with the wheel gun.
We know it’s not where we want to be, but we’ll give it a big push next week in Spa 👊 #HungarianGP 🇭🇺 #F1 pic.twitter.com/Rv1gOnXPow
— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) July 23, 2023
The misery didn’t end there as Leclerc got a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane. Two back-to-back miseries in a span of a few minutes ruined the Monegasque driver’s ace. Sainz meanwhile, believes that it simultaneously jeopardized his outing too.
With the time penalty, Leclerc dopped down to P7 despite finishing sixth. Mercedes star George Russell got his place instead. Sainz, however, who finished eighth, is not at all pleased with how the weekend unfolded for him.
Carlos Sainz wasn’t happy with Ferrari’s strategy at Hungaroring
After the conclusion of the Hungarian GP, Sainz, who was blasted for his excuses for not making it to Q3, suggested that Ferrari tried to compensate for their own blunder. In doing so, they ended up ruining his race.
According to Soy Motor, Sainz told DAZN: “There’s not much to say. Charles had a complicated stop and then it’s clear that the team has decided to change the positions of the cars, maybe to compensate or I don’t know. A shame.”
The chequered flag falls in Hungary 🏁
#HungarianGP 🇭🇺 #F1 #Charles16 #Carlos55 pic.twitter.com/thKVjgJJUY
— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) July 23, 2023
The Hungarian GP weekend turned out to be yet another underwhelming outing for Ferrari. This comes even though many expected them to have a strong outing with a supposed engine superiority.
Ferrari failed to make amends despite engine edge
According to Sam Collins of F1 TV, Ferrari had an engine advantage at the Hungaroring. This was evident from Haas and Alfa Romeo’s tremendous pace, that was on full display, especially during qualifying.
Despite this, Ferrari failed to make use of this advantage and was outperformed by Alfa Romeo, their customer team, in the qualification. Keeping the qualifying session aside, the race didn’t give them results to brag about either, as the Tifosi endured a difficult weekend overall.
When Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were up to P5 and P6 by the first few laps, there were hopes of a strong points haul for the Maranello-based outfit. However, all hopes were shattered by the time the race reached its halfway mark, thanks to a poor strategy and a botched pit-stop by Leclerc.
