Sainz shuts down competitive F1 suggestions despite end to 47-year drought
Carlos Sainz does not buy into the notion that multiple teams can win on any given F1 weekend.
This is in spite of Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc’s unexpected victory at Monza and F1 ending a 47-year wait in the process.
The Spaniard believes that whilst the field has closed significantly, “the fastest car normally wins”, even if that was not the case at the Italian Grand Prix.
McLaren locked out the front row of the grid at the Temple of Speed, but Ferrari’s daring one-stop strategy provided Leclerc to opportunity to manage the closing stages of the grand prix from the front, ultimately holding off Oscar Piastri to send the home fans into raptures.
For the first time since 1990, four teams had won at least two grand prix, with McLaren and Ferrari joined by Mercedes and Red Bull.
Following the Scuderia’s victory in Monza, the level of competitiveness has taken a step further still, with four teams triumphing in least three grand prix for the first time since 1977.
However, despite that impressive statistic, Sainz disavowed the suggestion that through strategy and clever race management, more than one of the aforementioned teams can win at any given track.
“For me, still, the fastest car normally wins,” the three-time grand prix winner told media including RacingNews365.
“Maybe [the Italian Grand Prix] was very tight between the Ferraris and McLarens, but [at Zandvoort], the fastest car won, so it’s still dependent on that.”
The leading group was particularly close during qualifying at Monza, with the top six drivers all separated by less than two-tenths of a second in the grid-setting session.
To Sainz, this shows that the leading drivers are “more or less equal on pace” and that the car is the difference-maker in the a season that has seen at least seven grand prix winners for the first time since 2012.
“Especially when you see the gaps in qualifying between drivers, where they’re within a tenth [of a second] of each other,” the future Williams driver added.
“So, it just shows that the drivers are more or less equal on pace, and it’s who has that last tenth with the car, or hooking it up, feeling 100 percent with the car.”
