Toro Rosso driver bemoans "rookie error" after bid to undercut Maldonado backfired
Monday 28 September 2015 08:44, UK
A frustrated Carlos Sainz chastised himself after clouting a pit lane bollard in the Japanese GP, compromising what he reckons was arguably his best race in F1 to date.
The Toro Rosso rookie, having continued on the opening lap despite tangling with Sergio Perez, was running behind Lotus's Pastor Maldonado in ninth place when his attempted undercut at his second pit stop on lap 27 backfired.
Told to do the opposite to the Venezuelan at the end of the lap, Sainz initially thought Maldonado was pitting himself, only to see the Lotus continue onto the pit straight. Carrying too much speed, the 21-year-old's sudden dive towards the pits sent him straight into a collision course with the bollard positioned on the entry slip, breaking his front wing.
"I was having one of my best races so far this year. A good first stint and then a very good second stint on the prime [tyre] - I was really flying and catching the cars in front," Sainz told reporters after he eventually finished behind team-mate Max Verstappen in 10th.
"Then at that point it was simply impossible to overtake the Lotus on track and we said 'okay, let's undercut'. They told me to do the opposite to him [at the end of the lap] and I thought he was coming in because he was on the radius of the pit entry, so I was meant to continue and do the opposite to him.
"But suddenly he continued and I was very aggressive on the turn-in to the pit entry and didn't slow down enough. It was a simple mistake. I took the bollard [out], damaged my front wing. I called it on the radio quickly but they didn't have time to prepare it, so at the end it was 15 seconds extra at the pit stop."
Having seen results go begging via four straight mechanical retirements between the Austrian and Belgian GPs, Sainz admitted he had no one to blame but himself.
"Right now the feeling of the pit entry feels really fresh so I still feel pretty bad about the mistake. It was a rookie mistake, one of the first of the season," he said.
"Today the team did everything perfect, there were no issues with the car, nothing happened to me and normally everything happens. So it's a coincidence that it me this time who made a mistake. It was one of my best races of this season until that point - if not the best - and it was just a shame it had to happen."
Indeed, even some consoling words from his famously no-nonsense team boss couldn't lift Sainz's immediate post-race gloom.
"Franz [Tost] came and said 'it was one of the best races from you so far, don't worry about the mistake, it's your first year, learn from it. I was like 'ah, don't tell me I'm so angry!'" Sainz added.
Although Sainz only initially lost position to Perez, the Spaniard says he then wrecked his tyres trying to make amends.
"It was already meant to be a long stint but now with the mistake in my head, especially behind Perez, who was really slow in the corners and then flying on the straights, I completely destroyed my tyres," he added.
Struggling for grip, Sainz was then given an ultimatum from the pit wall as Verstappen raced up behind him in the closing stages.
"I had no tyres, I couldn't do anything. The team told me 'look, if you start fighting or start pushing you're not going to make it to the end and we will need to do one stop more and you will not finish in the points. So you decide," he recalled.
"I thought 'I've done enough for today, so let's arrive in the points'".
Don't miss the F1 Midweek Report on Wednesday night at 8.30pm when Ted Kravitz and David Brabham join Natalie Pinkham to discuss the Japanese GP
