Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz has won for the second time in his GP career: after Silverstone 2022 now Singapore 2023. The Spaniard says: «Using Norris behind me as a buffer against Mercedes, that was cheeky.»
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Carlos Sainz was extremely clever about it. The 29-year-old Spaniard drove exactly as fast as he had to in Singapore, but never so fast as to put too much strain on his tyres. Tyre wear is a concern at Ferrari 2023, and the way the Madrilenian carried his car to the finish shows skill and brains.
Sainz was clever enough to keep the gap to chaser Lando Norris in the McLaren under a second in the final part of the race so that the Englishman could flatten the rear wing of his car. But Sainz drove so fast at the crucial points of the difficult Singapore track that Norris was unable to launch a decisive attack.
Sainz was thinking more about the advancing Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton than about his buddy Lando. In terms of pure speed, Ferrari and McLaren were inferior at this stage of the race, but because Norris was able to drive with a flat wing, Russell’s chase behind his compatriot was over. The tyres on Russell’s Mercedes promptly degraded, in the end George even slid off the track, and Lewis Hamilton didn’t manage a stroke of genius either.
Carlos Sainz after the race: «The tyre management and the way to keep me in front of Norris, that was the deciding factor today. We’ve only got one real chance to win a Grand Prix so far this year, that was here in Singapore because we realised in practice that Red Bull Racing is not as strong as usual.»
«We didn’t make a single mistake all weekend. That makes me very proud. We were under a lot of pressure. But we resisted that pressure.»
«Honestly — I didn’t know before the race if we would be fast enough to win here. But with good tyre management and keeping that gap on Norris, I was able to take that opportunity.»
«The start was also important: I was able to convert pole position into the lead. But then a safety car period came too early for us and I realised it wouldn’t be easy to run on the hard tyre for so long. Especially as I had felt very comfortable on the medium-hard tyres before.»
«When the Mercedes moved up, I knew I had enough speed to make gains. But when I picked up speed, I immediately felt the tyres degrading faster. My car started to slide and I could see that Lando Norris behind me was doing the same.»
«Russell and Hamilton were able to pass Leclerc quicker than I would have liked and I knew — now I have to come up with something special here. Hence the cheeky idea to let Norris get a little bit closer and give him the opportunity to open the rear wing of his car. On a circuit like Singapore, you always make plans like that, but then the execution is a bit more difficult.»
«I admit: it was risky. I knew I couldn’t afford a single mistake, otherwise I would have lost the victory. In between, I caught myself thinking: ‘I hope this goes well, otherwise I’ll look very old here.’ But in the end, everything worked out exactly as I had imagined.»
Singapore GP, Marina Bay Street Circuit
01 Carlos Sainz (E), Ferrari, 1:46:37.418 h
02 Lando Norris (GB), McLaren, +0.812 sec
03 Lewis Hamilton (GB), Mercedes, +1.269
04 Charles Leclerc (MC), Ferrari, +21.177
05 Max Verstappen (NL), Red Bull Racing, +21.441
06 Pierre Gasly (F), Alpine, +38.441
07 Oscar Piastri (AUS), McLaren, +41.479
08 Sergio Pérez (MEX), Red Bull Racing, +54.534
09 Liam Lawson (NZ), AlphaTauri, +1:05.918 min
10th Kevin Magnussen (DK), Haas, +1:12.116
11th Alex Albon (T), Williams, +1:13.417
12th Guanyu Zhou (RCH), Alfa Romeo, +1:23.649
13th Nico Hülkenberg (D), Haas, +1:26.201
14th Logan Sargeant (USA), Williams, +1:26.889
15th Fernando Alonso (E), Aston Martin, +1:27.603
Ven
George Russell (GB), Mercedes, Crash
Valtteri Bottas (FIN), Alfa Romeo, retirement
Esteban Ocon (F), Alpine, Gearbox
Yuki Tsunoda (J), AlphaTauri, Crash
World Championship standings (after 15 of 22 Grand Prix, incl. 3 of 6 sprints)
Ovladače
01 Verstappen 374 points
02 Pérez 223
02. Hamilton 180
04. Alonso 170
05 Sainz 142
06. Leclerc 123
07 Russell 109
08. Norris 97
09. Procházka 47
10th Gasly 45
11th Piastri 42
12th Ocon 36
13th Albon 21
14th Hülkenberg 9
15th Bottas 6
16th Zhou 4
17th Tsunoda 3
18th Magnussen 3
19th Lawson 2
20th Sargeant 0
21 De Vries 0
22nd Ricciardo 0
Constructors’ Cup
01 Red Bull Racing 597 points
02. Mercedes 289
03. Ferrari 265
04th Aston Martin 217
05. McLaren 139
06. Alpská 81
07. Williams 21
08. Haas 12
09. Alfa Romeo 10
10. AlphaTauri 5
After Sainz broke free of the Red Bull family – beginning with a move to Renault towards the end of the 2017 season – the Spaniard has really flourished in his subsequent spells with McLaren and Ferrari respectively.
And, while the current 2022 campaign has had its fair share of disappointment for Sainz, he has still managed to notch up a major Formula 1 milestone by bagging his first-ever F1 win, emerging victorious at the British Grand Prix.
Being team-mates with the likes of Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc during his career, it is a challenge for Sainz to make sure he hogs some of the limelight as well – and for good reasons, not bad.
He is of the opinion that his skills can go unnoticed, yet he will continue to rely on others to highlight the successes because he is incredibly wary of how he comes across in interviews when he starts to blow his own trumpet.
“A lot of people…sometimes they don’t perceive my speed,” Sainz said in an interview with BBC Sport.
“And I know how fast I am but I just don’t like talking about it. I don’t give it value, because if I know in myself and my engineers and the people I work with know it, I don’t need more people to know it.
“Maybe I am not doing myself any favours, but it is how I am and I am not going to change.
“Every time I do an interview and say my positives and I read them, I say: ‘Ah, this sounds super-arrogant.’
“Maybe I go more towards the humble too much and stay in that way – modest. But whenever I see something a bit arrogant, I kill myself for it.
“So I always like to let you guys give your opinion of what you see as my strengths, while I criticise my weaknesses.”
Sainz will say himself that it was difficult to find positives at the start of the 2022 campaign as he wrestled with a car he felt uncomfortable in whilst team-mate Leclerc was consistently getting the better of him, especially in qualifying.
“I have never been 0.2-0.3 seconds off any team-mate in F1 and I can never accept that,” Sainz said of the qualifying gap to Leclerc, which he has since clawed back to the point where the gap is a tiny one.
“I always feel like I am quick in any kind of car, and for the first time in my career I found myself with a very competitive car but one I didn’t feel comfortable and natural with.
“I had to challenge myself and open up new roads of set-up and driving style that I wish I didn’t have to open, because I wish everything had come a lot more natural and positively.
“But it happened this way, and I stayed disciplined. I tried a lot of things and I made a lot of mistakes trying things. But it was all about trial and error and then coming back and discovering a new path that was a little step forward.”
With a 63-point deficit to Leclerc in the World Championship standings and only two race weekends left in the season, Sainz is going to have to settle for being second best at Ferrari in 2022.
However, he will still have hopes of climbing as high as P4, ahead of Mercedes pair George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
Carlos Sainz not just a smooth operator, but a smart one…
Carlos Sainz’s refreshingly honest approach means he is always good value when being interviewed. His analytical mind provides excellent insight into his performances and his mentality as he tries to play his part in bringing back the glory days to Ferrari.
But while this alone is enough to clog up anyone’s brain capacity, Sainz still has room to think about how he represents himself in the public eye.
It is a shame that we live in a world where people don’t feel comfortable in praising themselves. The transition to perceived arrogance should only come when said praise is unjustified, but, all things considered, this is not a trap Sainz can fall into so easily. He does have genuine class.
Even though 2022 has been a tough year for Sainz, he has still been an inspired choice by Ferrari when they looked to replace Sebastian Vettel.
If Sainz can produce a cleaner 2023 campaign with fewer blots on his copybook and perhaps make the same impression as he did during his first season with the Scuderia, it won’t be long before his stock rises again and is flooded with praise.
