Spanish press about strange coincidences and Sainz victories

The Spanish press drew attention to a strange pattern accompanying Carlos Sainz’s victories: in all three cases he won after the retirement of George Russell.

Of course, anything can happen in racing, and there are many nuances on which success depends or which lead to failure, but when some phenomena repeat themselves over and over again, it causes bewilderment.

Of course, in all three cases where he managed to win the Grand Prix, Sainz acted very correctly, drove consistently, his car did not let him down, the team adhered to rational tactics and the pit stops were carried out smoothly. But there’s something else strange: Russell somehow got into trouble in all these races and didn’t finish, albeit for different reasons.

Russell is sometimes called ‘Mr. Stability’, also because he rarely makes mistakes. But for some reason, when he is unlucky, luck smiles at Sainz.

Carlos achieved his first victory at Silverstone in 2022: he then achieved pole position, although qualifying took place in difficult conditions on wet asphalt, but the events of that British Grand Prix developed according to a difficult scenario.

It all started at the start when Alfa Romeo driver Guanyu Zhou had a serious accident. It was caused by certain on-track maneuvers by Pierre Gasly and Russell, but when the race was immediately stopped by red flags, George left the cockpit of his car as he decided to help Zhou. The race ended for him when his Mercedes was towed away by marshals.

Then there was last year’s Singapore Grand Prix – the only stage of the season where victory did not go to the Red Bull Racing driver, but to Carlos Sainz driving a Ferrari. The Spaniard rode confidently from the start, working correctly with the tires and generally controlling the flow of the race. One of his pursuers was Russell, but shortly before the finish he made a mistake when trying to overtake Lando Norris and the car crashed.

George wasn’t destined to see the checkered flag last weekend either. The stewards ruled Fernando Alonso at fault for the crash at Melbourne’s Albert Park and was ultimately penalized for “potentially dangerous driving” and had a 20-second penalty added to his time. But that’s another story, and opinions may differ, but the important thing is that Sainz won again when Russell retired.

Of course, from the first training session, Carlos was one of the fastest on the Australian circuit, despite having recently undergone surgery to remove his appendix, but the pattern was confirmed again: Sainz himself is a great guy, but Russell dropped out of training . racing again, and this is an indisputable fact.

The chances that such coincidences will continue to exist are extremely small, but if they do happen, then you will have to, as a popular movie character said, “write it down in riddles.”