Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur says all the credit for Carlos Sainz's remarkable driving tactics in the final laps of the Singapore Grand Prix goes to the Spaniard.
In the closing stages of the thrilling race at Marina Bay, Sainz made the bold decision to allow runner-up Lando Norris to tighten the gap with the Scuderia charger in order to hand the McLaren driver the benefit of DRS.
In turn, that allowed Norris to keep himself ahead of the Mercedes cars of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton who were running on the faster medium compound tyre compared to the hard rubber on the Ferrari and McLaren.
The plan, while risky for Sainz, worked perfectly as Norris was indeed able to protect his spot on the podium while fending off Russell until the last lap when the Mercedes driver hit the wall at Turn 10.
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While the Ferrari pitwall had managed most of the race, including ordering Leclerc to back up the pack to allow Sainz to save his tyres until he would be required to push, the Spaniard's master plan late in the event was of his own making.
"It was the idea of Carlos," said team principal Fred Vasseur. "I don't want to say it's obvious, but he knew he was more at risk with Mercedes than with Norris.
"With Norris we had the same tyres, and almost the same pace from the lap one. We were not really at risk with Norris except if we lost the tyres, so it was a clever move from Carlos to keep Norris into the DRS."
Sainz said that his plan to drop back to ensure that Norris picked up DRS was an obvious one as far as he was concerned.
"I didn’t need the team to suggest it, I knew my pace more or less to Lando, I knew how difficult it is to overtake here," he explained.
"I knew he was on a hard, I knew if George and Lewis were passing him I was probably going to be dead meat also, so I needed him to hold on as long as possible.
"I slowed down just a bit to give him DRS into Turn 7 to hold them off and keep my race under control. Not easy as you are putting yourself under risk and you cannot do any mistakes, but it was my strategy and it worked and I’m glad it did."
©Ferrari
The fact that Sainz was able to put together his plan with Norris, his former McLaren teammate, was an extra bonus for the Ferrari charger.
"I think we should buy each other drinks, by giving him DRS I saved his P2 and by him defending as well as he did from Russell he helped me to get P1," he said with a broad smile.
"Good ‘Carlando’ moments out there and it was nice honestly to get the podium with him, we have a great relationship and it was good also to see the McLaren guys there with Ferrari, good story."
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