According to Carlos Sainz, Ferrari needs to get on top of their issues with tyre wear if they’re to be less ‘vulnerable’ on track for the remainder of the season.
Sainz landed on the podium in Russia last time out after re-entering the top three on Lap 37 – the decision to switch to intermediates as the rain began to fall in Sochi, secured the final step on the podium.
Speaking after the race, the Spaniard told Sky Sports F1; “I’m very, very happy with the P3 but it was a suffered P3. Right from the beginning I was in the dream scenario of perfect start and risking it on the outside of Lando at Turn Two and getting ahead of him.
“Then we had good stint management on the hard in traffic, right calls to go onto inters with a very tricky hard tyre with the rain. All the right calls at the right time and we brought home a P3.”
Speaking about the ongoing issues with tyres, Sainz said the graining meant they needed to pit early, and said the team ‘cannot be too happy’ until they mend the issues with the front tyres.
“We were terrible with the graining so we had to pit (early). We thought we were going to get undercut by Lance. I think we did the right call to pit first in the queue behind the traffic in Bottas.
“We cannot be too happy as Ferrari need to make sure that next time we are leading a grand prix we are not so vulnerable,” he explained.
“We need to keep working on this front tyre issue, we need to keep working on the top speed obviously and hopefully with a new engine coming in the next few races it should be a bit easier.”
