Carlos Sainz was seventh in Qatar, ahead of Leclerc, and it didn’t look like a great Sunday from Ferrari. The Madrid native later revealed that they had to manage the tires throughout the race for fear of a puncture, or a drop in performance like those of Portimao and Paul Ricard, and that in the end they found more benefits than expected.
“We knew we would degrade a lot and we couldn’t go to one stop. We had to be very conservative. The first ‘stint’ was not bad, it was difficult for me to get out with the medium but then I was just as fast as the soft ones. In the second ‘stint’, we keep. Then, ten laps from the end, the team told me to push, that the tires would go all the way. Seen in perspective, it could have been pushed further with the tires and have run a faster race. “
“It was a race looking at the front left tire, we feared that the same thing would happen to us. Until we saw that Charles did not degrade so much, and they have given me free rein. Many uncertainties, wear limits us when attacking in the race, but we will have to work for next year “, He explained, although they still finished ahead of both McLaren, their direct rival for third place in manufacturers: “That shows that it was not easy to manage the situation. We were conservative, but we arrived with both cars in the points. It is not spectacular or fun, but in the end it has paid off. “
