It wasn’t an easy Miami Grand Prix for Carlos Sainz Jr. and Scuderia Ferrari, as they lacked the pace to compete for the podium places.
Sainz started on the front row alongside Sergio Pérez, but the Spaniard was unable to challenge the Mexican and the RB19 in the first stint. Sainz explained that the team tried to allow him to undercut Fernando Alonso, who started third, but unfortunately, he came out of the pits into traffic and that pushing cost him crucial time.
The Spaniard went on to admit that Ferrari struggled with their race pace and that was evident with Sainz dropping all the way down to fifth falling behind Max Verstappen, Alonso and even George Russell in the struggling Mercedes. The Ferrari driver was also awarded a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pitlane.
“It was a tough race for us. My first stint on the Medium was good, but we tried to undercut Fernando early and I had to push the Hards too much immediately after coming out of the pits in order to get through the traffic. I think we paid the price for that a bit, but in general, we clearly struggle with race pace. It’s frustrating, but we’ll keep working on a solution and I’m confident that we can progress as a team for the next races.”
Charles Leclerc: “We have to understand why we are so competitive in qualifying and off the pace in the race”
Charles Leclerc failed to make an impression on the Miami GP finishing in seventh, the position he started the race in.
Leclerc showed great pace in qualifying and was on course to challenge for pole position until he lost control of the car causing a red flag in Q3, with just under two minutes to go. Unfortunately for Ferrari and Leclerc, they failed to show the competitive pace from qualifying in the race.
Leclerc seemed downbeat following the race due to his poor performance but hopes that their next upgrades can help propel them closer to Oracle Red Bull Racing in the Championship.
“I struggled with the car bottoming at high speed, which I hadn’t experienced so far this weekend. I had to just focus on bringing the car home, so overall it was not a great race. We have to work on understanding why we are so competitive in qualifying and off the pace in the race. We will keep pushing and hopefully, with the upgrades we have coming, we can make a step forward.”
