Ferrari chief strategist Iñaque Rueda said the indirect cause of Carlos Sainz’s pit stop error was Red Bull Racing’s actions. In Scuderia they tried to protect Carlos from “cutting” rivals and called the driver to a pit stop, but the mechanics weren’t ready for this – as a result Carlos had to wait 12.7 seconds before getting a new left rear wheel.
“The first wave of pit stops started early enough – the drivers started going into the pits around lap ten,” says Rueda. “It gave us the chance to make our pit stop and then go onto an empty track.
In Carlos’ case, we were in a risky situation due to the fact that both Mercedes drivers and Sergio Perez were trying to “cut” us. At that stage in the race it meant Carlos would lose position.”
Iñache Rueda added that Sainz was called to the pit stop later than usual. As a rule, the team allows itself a margin of 23-24 seconds, but in Zandvoort, in the case of Carlos, the mechanics had 17 seconds to prepare for a tire change.
“Mechanics changing tires on the left must cross the autostop zone,” continues Rueda. – Therefore, the left rear wheel was put on the car after replacing the other three.
The mechanics responsible for the keys and the mechanics who removed the old tires arrived just in time. But because Carlos came into the pits earlier than usual, the mechanic responsible for installing the new left rear wheel was not in place on time.”
Source: F1 News
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