Why Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz is under no illusions after the Formula 1 race in Mexico and what weaknesses the competition exploited
Place two at the start, place four at the finish: Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz regressed in the 2023 Mexico Grand Prix, but he is under no illusions: “With the pace of Max [Verstappen] and Hamilton, it was a matter of time before they passed. In race trim, they are simply significantly faster than us.” And that’s exactly how it turned out.
Whereas Verstappen’s overtaking before the first corner had nothing to do with race trim: coming from P3, Verstappen benefited from the slipstream of the cars in front of him and Red Bull’s own top speed to take the lead right away.
But Ferrari was already indirectly helping to put Verstappen ahead when he set off, says Sainz: “[Charles Leclerc] and I both didn’t get away very well.”
In fact, he says, that was already apparent early in the weekend. Sainz admits to “a few problems” on test starts in free practice. The SF-23 didn’t cope well with the track conditions in Mexico City, he said, and Ferrari’s start set-up “probably wasn’t perfect, although we’ve had some very good starts recently.”
Verstappen, on the other hand, “got off the line very quickly” and “he was practically next to me right away,” says Sainz. That meant a position was lost right on the first lap.
Medium stint becomes test of patience for Sainz
Just before the halfway point of the race, Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes finally overtook Sainz’s Ferrari, who was running on worn medium tires at the time because Ferrari was aiming for a one-stop strategy and planned a long first stint.
But things didn’t go according to plan for Sainz: He speaks of a “strange stint with medium” and of “problems with the front tires.” He said he didn’t have a good feeling “practically from the opening lap.” “Only with Hard were we able to drive the pace that was possible this weekend,” says Sainz.
His impression is correct: With Medium, Sainz was mostly in the low range around 1:24 minutes with slightly better lap times initially. With Hard, it immediately went into the 1:23 region, but the front runners around Verstappen went 1:22 low and were sometimes a second per lap better.
In the race, Ferrari opponents are pulling away
Tire wear was again a factor for Ferrari: Eight drivers did better than Sainz over the race distance, according to our technology partner PACETEQ, but even Leclerc was only sixth in the field here, still behind Williams driver Alexander Albon and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.
For Sainz, this is no surprise, because “it’s been like this all year,” he says, explaining, “We can fight in qualifying and beat our opponents sometimes, but in the race they pull us away by two or three tenths. Sometimes we’re only a tenth short, sometimes it’s four or six. It depends on the track.”
Ferrari has long identified tire wear and performance over the distance as “the main weakness of our car,” Sainz says. For the rest of the 2023 season, however, the Ferrari drivers will have to live with it: The 2024 car will be the earliest remedy, “because that’s what we’re focusing on for next year. “