Why Carlos Sainz says F1 didn’t cut a good figure in the scene between him and Sergio Perez in Jeddah and what needs to be better
Carlos Sainz comes out of the pit lane, Sergio Perez drives on the track: but who gets third place after the safety car period in the Formula 1 race in Jeddah? This question is not answered for laps. It is not until the Grand Prix is back on that corrections are made: Perez lets Sainz go and relinquishes P3 without a fight. However, Ferrari is not completely satisfied with this solution.
The Maranello-based racing team had gone directly to race control for clarification on lap 16, after Sainz’s pit stop. “I think it took a bit too long to decide to put it to the stewards,” said Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto.
“I think the decision was only made when the safety car came back in. By then it was too late to change positions before the restart. “
Ferrari reproach to race control
This is what Binotto chalks up to the Formula One officials, even if he doesn’t put it so directly: “I don’t want to point fingers here, but it seems like we could handle such decisions faster, because here the case was clear and obvious.”
“This could have been handled differently and it would be important to handle something like this differently. It would have been fairer and appropriate to swap the places back before the restart. “
Sainz agrees. O-Ton: “Rules are rules. I think I was just ahead at the safety car line, so I own the position. “
Sainz: There’s been a mix-up!
Sainz felt it was “very strange” that there was no immediate intervention. Formula 1 definitely has some catching up to do here, according to the Spaniard. “I think we have to analyse situations like this carefully to see if we can’t make them easier.”
“Because if Checo had ceded the position to me during the safety car period, then I could have fought with Max at the restart and Checo could have attacked me in turn. But this way I fought with him, knowing that he would give me the position back soon. “
From his point of view, there was “unnecessary confusion”, when there had been enough time during the safety car phase to keep order in the field. Or as Sainz himself puts it: “There were millions of opportunities for Checo to let me through.”
In addition, there was the danger of “foreign interference”. Sainz: “What if Russell had passed me? Would Checo have let me and Russell through? That would have been incredibly unfair, also for him. And if he doesn’t give me the position back because Russell is in between, it would be equally unfair.”
This leads to only one conclusion, Sainz continued: “We have to get better as a sport, simplify, react faster. So that we drivers can race more freely. “
No opposition from Red Bull
There is no contradiction from Red Bull. Perez himself told ‘Sky’ after the race that the swap of places with Sainz “went fine”, was practically a formality
Team boss Christian Horner added: “We had checked with race control because we thought we might have been a bit further back. So we asked for a check. Race control confirmed [our impression], so we gave the position back.”
That left Sainz third in the race – and remained so. “My only job then was to keep P3,” said the Ferrari driver. “The Red Bull cars really flew at the end and put us under pressure. But for me, this race was a step forward compared to Bahrain. Because I managed to find a better rhythm in the car.”
Compared to team-mate Charles Leclerc, he would still be “a few tenths” short. “But I think I can still get there,” says Sainz, who had taken provisional pole position before the final attempt in Q3, but was then undercut. His conclusion: “In Jeddah I was not yet on the same level as Charles and Max, but I was closer than in Bahrain.
