Carlos Sainz cites Mercedes ‘mistakes’ in Ferrari ‘biggest weaknesses’ admission

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Carlos Sainz believes Mercedes and Red Bull were just as liable as Ferrari for making ‘strategic mistakes’ in 2023 after claiming his Formula 1 team’s ‘biggest weaknesses’.

The Scuderia fell just short of the Silver Arrows in their quest to finish this year second in the constructors’ championship. Mercedes sealed P2 ahead of Ferrari by only three points at the final round. But Red Bull took the teams’ title with their 860 points to the Silver Arrows’ 409.

Yet despite Red Bull’s success, with Max Verstappen producing the most dominant season in F1 history, Sainz still feels the Milton Keynes squad committed some ‘strategic mistakes’. The 29-year-old also believes Red Bull and Mercedes’ mishaps proved Ferrari were not that bad.

Ferrari often face backlash for their strategy… even from Charles Leclerc

Ferrari often face backlash for their strategic decisions – including from their drivers. Charles Leclerc claimed the Maranello outfit left him with a ‘tough’ United States GP as the one-stop tactic was ‘definitely’ not ‘right’. Ferrari also wrongly put him on a two-stop at the British GP.

Stopping early at Silverstone forced Leclerc to stop again under the safety car before coming home in P9 from P4 on the grid. Sainz also ended a race he won in 2022 in P10. Leclerc may have won the 2022 British GP had Ferrari not left him out, unlike Sainz, under the safety car.

Ferrari also cost Leclerc at the 2022 Monaco GP by reacting slowly to the changing weather and the 2022 Hungarian GP with an early stop. The 26-year-old also lamented his team after ignoring pleas for dry tyres at the start of Q2 at the 2023 Canadian GP after only taking P11.

Carlos Sainz defends Ferrari but admits the F1 team’s ‘biggest weaknesses’

Sainz, though, has now come out in Ferrari’s defence by claiming the team did not lose ‘that many points’ through strategic mistakes in 2023. He even claims that Mercedes and Red Bull were just as culpable of committing strategic mistakes. But Ferrari do have room to improve.

“I really believe that we didn’t lose that many points this year with the strategy,” Sainz said, via quotes by Motorsport-Total. “We didn’t get it right in some races, yes. But it wasn’t our Achilles heel.”

He added: “Over the 22 races, Mercedes and Red Bull also made strategic mistakes. If we made more mistakes, then maybe there is still something to optimise. But it is a long way away of being our Achilles heel.”

Rather than their mistakes with Sainz and Leclerc’s strategies, the Spaniard believes Ferrari’s greatest weakness in 2023 was how the SF-23 tore through its tyres. The Italian marquee’s 2023 challenger often degraded its tyres quicker than their rivals, costing them in the races.

“If your car is not as fast on [the] Sunday and also puts more strain on the tyres than your opponents, then it is more difficult to get the strategy right,” he continued. “With higher tyre wear, you always run the risk of being attacked with an undercut, and you practically can’t try an overcut. This means you have very little room for manoeuvre strategically.

“Our biggest weaknesses are the race pace and tyre wear – not so much the strategy.”