How Sainz turned crash streak into his best Ferrari F1 weekend so far

Think back to the start of Formula 1 2021. Despite the delay to the design rules reset and the current machines entering a bizarre carryover year thanks to the pandemic-disruption cost action from F1, the FIA and the teams, there was still plenty of change to consider.

Mainly in the driver line-ups. Four switched teams over that gloomy winter, with Fernando Alonso also returning to the F1 fold after two years away and Mick Schumacher, Nikita Mazepin and Yuki Tsunoda making the step up from Formula 2.

An additional cost-saving measure impacted these drivers more than those that had stayed put from 2020. The testing reduction meant every driver making a fresh start in 2021 had just one-and-a-half days of official, full-speed action in their new car over the course of the reduced pre-season.

They were at the mercy of reliability woes – as Sebastian Vettel found out to his cost, with the greater share of Aston Martin’s problems occurring during his scheduled time with the AMR21 in Bahrain. And so, when the new season finally began, there was plenty of talk about how the reduced testing time was holding back the drivers making new homes in 2021.

That period is now firmly in the past, with Vettel taking two on-the-road podiums for Aston, Daniel Ricciardo going from serious struggles gelling with the McLaren to winning at Monza, and Alonso leading the way in Alpine’s points haul.

It remains more of a struggle for the rookies. The combined 934 races and counting racked up between the established stars who made 2021 winter switches naturally provided an experience buffer to ease the transition at least somewhat.

Fernando Alonso, Alpine A521 , Carlos Sainz Jr., Ferrari SF21

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

But there’s one driver in particular that entered 2021 in unfamiliar territory and is now succeeding in a way that none of the others have done so far: Carlos Sainz Jr.

He may not have Ricciardo’s victory, but like Vettel and Alonso he leads a team-mate already established at the squad he joined. Unlike his compatriot, Sainz has taken podium finishes and unlike Vettel, he’s led a race on merit (Alonso has also led laps during a pitstop phase).

Sainz currently heads Charles Leclerc in the 2021 drivers’ standings and has three podiums to the Monegasque’s one. Those measures alone are impressive given Leclerc’s deserved reputation as an F1 champion-in-waiting.

It’s perhaps no coincidence that a driver who has raced for four teams in seven F1 seasons has had less trouble adapting to unfamiliar processes and operational procedures – Sainz has essentially honed that as a skill in itself.

"Overall, I think it’s been my strongest weekend in Ferrari. Perfect, I don’t know – perfect is a very strong word at times. There’s always things when you look back that you can improve, so perfect is not the right word. But my most complete weekend, let’s put it like that" Carlos Sainz Jr

The most recent of those three podiums came last weekend at Sochi, where Sainz was one of the stars of the weekend overall.

PLUS: How Ferrari has brought the best from F1’s smooth operator

Like Lando Norris, he nailed the timing of the switchover from inters to slicks in Q3, building enough heat into his softs to claim provisional pole until his former team-mate blasted ahead. In the race, he held firm against the fast-starting George Russell after leaving the less grippy side of the grid to run in Norris’s slipstream and seize the lead with a bold, around-the-outside move at Turn 2.

After leading 12 laps, things got tougher for Sainz as he struggled with the front-left medium tyre graining and then degradation, so was pitted into the pack. But he maintained his pace on the hards when things opened up again as others pitted ahead to run third.

Carlos Sainz Jr., Ferrari SF21, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL35M

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Ferrari expected him to fall back to fifth if things stayed dry and he’d just been overtaken by Sergio Perez when the rain fell. There he rescued the podium – a slip off the road in front of Max Verstappen costing him a place that he’d likely have had a hard defending in any case given the Red Bull averaged 1.4s a lap faster once they’d taken the inters on the same lap.

Afterwards, Sainz was understandably pleased.

“I’m not going to lie, I’m proud of the weekend,” he said. “I think the team has also done a very good job with all of the pitstop calls, [in qualifying] going into the soft tyre at the right time, [in the race] going into taking the intermediates at the right time.

“Overall, I think it’s been my strongest weekend in Ferrari. Perfect, I don’t know – perfect is a very strong word at times. There’s always things when you look back that you can improve, so perfect is not the right word. But my most complete weekend, let’s put it like that.”

What’s even more impressive is that Sainz’s Sochi weekend ended a trend of disrupted events – after he’d crashed in three of the last four. There was his qualifying shunt at Budapest, then big FP3 accidents at Zandvoort and Monza.

Sainz put those moments down to the lingering lack of experience he has with the Ferrari package and team overall. But, as well as being pleased with his pace and tyre management while in the lead, even as his team’s continued struggles with the latter factor overall meant stopping early and not being able to run through the graining phase as Norris and Hamilton did, Sainz was happy a plan he’d focussed on pre-weekend had paid off.

“I made a conscious effort to take it step by step,” he explained. “Through free practice, into quali – to be fast really when I need to be fast instead of being fast straight away in FP1. And it has worked well, it has given me a good confidence. I’ve been quick all weekend and I’ve been feeling at home.”

Carlos Sainz Jr., Ferrari SF21

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Sainz reckons it will take a full year of being at Ferrari to consistently produce exceptional performances as he did last weekend – he even said after Hungary that 2021 “definitely doesn't feel like my strongest season in F1” – but he really is proving his worth to the Scuderia.

It was argued by many before the season began, including by this writer, that Ferrari possesses F1’s strongest line-up. That is a subjective, almost emotional reasoning, but cold hard statistics back it up.

The points difference percentage between Sainz and Leclerc stands at 92.4% - by far the smallest on the grid. Next up is Alpine, with Esteban Ocon so far scoring 77.6% of Alonso’s total.

This isn’t a totally representative assessment given not all teams have points percentages to compare between team-mates, and big bounties taken from chaotic, random races can skew things a touch. But Ferrari’s increase in this area since 2020 is pretty staggering. Last year, Vettel took just 33.67% of Leclerc’s total.

Sainz is currently 10-4 (not including races where grid penalties for technical reasons have impacted qualifying) behind in their qualifying head-to-head battle. But, overall, the Spaniard has made an excellent start to life in red

Sainz has still got a something of speed deficit to Leclerc, who has also come closest to winning races for Ferrari in 2021. There was his Monaco pole (controversial given his Q3 crash, which prevented Sainz having a shot at toppling him) and Silverstone heroics. Plus Sainz is currently 10-4 (not including races where grid penalties for technical reasons have impacted qualifying) behind in their qualifying head-to-head battle. But, overall, the Spaniard has made an excellent start to life in red.

Of course this is also the year where Ferrari continues to struggle with the aerodynamic concept engineered around the more powerful engine it agreed to drop in its 2020 settlement with the FIA. And the team still has a way to go to catch Mercedes and Honda (soon to be rebranded as Red Bull’s own engine) in the power stakes with its redesigned unit.

But if Ferrari can produce a car capable of regularly fighting at the front again in 2022, the Tifosi should have plenty to cheer. With Sainz and Leclerc, the Ferrari future looks to be in exciting hands.

Carlos Sainz Jr., Ferrari, 3rd position, celebrates with his team in Parc Ferme

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images