Carlos Sainz says Monaco GP is 'not about who is the fastest, it's about who gets all the timing of the pitstops right' after Ferrari bungles its stops

Carlos Sainz believes the Monaco GP was about getting the pitstop strategy correct rather than having the faster car. The Spanish driver felt Ferrari made the correct calls apart but passing lapped cars cost them time.

At the FIA post-race press conference, the Spaniard was asked on who had the faster car, Ferrari or Red Bull. He replied, saying:

“I don’t know. But it doesn’t matter really. Monaco is not, as you said, today’s not about who is the fastest, it’s about who gets all the timing of the pitstops right, and all the strategy calls right. Red Bull went for the Inters; we decided to stay out on Wets. I mean, I was on the race lead before this leg, so you could argue, I think today we did the right choices; it was the timing of that lapped car really that cost us a lot today.”

Earlier during the race, the Red Bull drivers were running second and fourth and were able to jump both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc after being put on an overcut strategy. The Spaniard felt strategy was key around the Monaco circuit and despite Ferrari’s decisions, they lost out on time while trying to get past Alex Albon’s Williams.

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Carlos Sainz believes Ferrari had tough decisions to make in the Monaco GP

Despite losing out on strategy to the Red Bulls, Carlos Sainz believes Ferrari had some tough decisions to make in the race with their tyre strategies. The Spaniard found it hard to choose between the full wet and the intermediate tires. Once on the dry tires, he claimed that the Williams in front of him made him lose a second or two to Sergio Perez.

Explaining the team's situation when it came to their strategy in the Monaco GP, the Ferrari driver said:

“There were some very tough calls to be made out there and a lot of communications going on on the radio to see what we could do. I knew that by staying out on the wets I would earn the race lead at some point and by the time I was on the race lead, I saw that it was going to be very close to going on slicks. The track was drying up super-quickly and at that point we decided to go until the slick. We put on the slick, the hard tyre, and on the out lap actually the tyre felt really good after using a wet that is super slippery. On the hard tyre it felt pretty grippy, but with tough luck that we were in the gearbox of a Williams or a lapped car that did a very slow Sector 1 and 2 and in the end let me by. This cost me one or two seconds of race time that was enough for Checo to overcut me.”

The current result has widened the gap in the constructors' standings between Red Bull and Ferrari. Had it not been for a poor strategy, Ferrari were on track to seal a potential 1-2 podium finish, which would have helped them grab the lead in the championship. While Carlos Sainz was content with his strategy, his teammate Charles Leclerc was disappointed with the team.