Carlos Sainz has confessed that Ferrari has a lot of “homework” to do to overcome the tyre issues that hampered its weekend at Formula One’s Singapore Grand Prix. Sainz was ready for an uphill battle after crashing in Q3, relegating him to 10th place, and his chances were hampered when he had to avoid contact on the opening lap.
With overtaking proving difficult, Ferrari elected to run an aggressive undercut to give Sainz a track advantage over slower cars ahead, including teammate Charles Leclerc.
But, with Leclerc much faster on newer tyres, Sainz let him by in the last stages of the race, allowing the Spaniard to finish seventh.
Sainz admits that Ferrari must address the current Pirelli compound’s tight operating window in order to avoid such setbacks. “I think what keeps being a bit of a trend this year is that we have a very narrow window for the tyres to perform in our car this year,” Sainz told Motorsport Week.
“I believe last year, our car turned on the tyres whenever we wanted. This year appears to be a tight line between getting them into the right window and not.
“So, sure, we’re trying to sort it out from my end. I’m going to focus over the next four weeks to see what I can do for the last six races.
to make that less of a limitation or a weakness and propel ourselves higher, because the racing pace is always powerful. So there’s some research to do on that side. Is Ferrari’s setback the result of an operational error?
With tyre temperatures essential, Ferrari may be heating the tyres to an improper window in the tyre blankets. When asked, however, Sainz stated that the team had numerous theories.
In a troubling admission, Sainz stated that the Italian manufacturer must pay “special attention” to the issue to avoid a repeat of his qualifying disaster.
“Obviously, we have theories right now, but I think unless you do the ideal perfect out-lap, the chance of not having the tyres in the right window is extremely tough for us,” he stated
added.
“And as soon as something happens out of our control, like having to let through traffic, going slow in sector two, having to queue a lot at the end of the pit lane, you’re a few degrees out of the operating window, and there’s zero grip, which is what caught me off guard and probably what caught Charles off guard in Turn 1.
“That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make mistakes as I did yesterday, but it does illustrate that we should pay special attention to them.
“Hopefully with that, once we put special attention into it, we can qualify a bit further up, and with our race pace, we can fight.”
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