Carlos Sainz has apologised to his Ferrari Formula 1 team for what he called “two very strange, unfortunate crashes” on Sunday in Brazil.
Sainz went off heavily in the morning Q2 session, stranding himself in P14. However the team decided to take a complete fresh power unit plus a new gearbox, which meant a pitlane start.
From there he found it hard to make progress and he was running 13th when he again spun and hit the barrier, which led to his retirement after 38 laps.
His team mate Charles Leclerc also had a difficult day, but managed to score points in fifth place.
“Two very strange, unfortunate crashes today,” said the Spaniard. “Bit of a nightmare day. Honestly, the two of them, just no sign of me crashing, so I couldn’t do anything to avoid them.
“But at the same time, it didn’t look easy out there to overtake today. So starting from the pit lane, it was always going to be difficult to make it to the points with the lack of overtaking there was.
“At the same time apologies to the whole team for the two crashes. I hope we can come back stronger.”
Sainz admitted that the SF-24, which is kinder on its tyres in normal conditions that its predecessor, has not been an easy car to drive in the rain.
“I’ve always been a very strong driver in the wet,” he said. “But for some reason, ever since I tried this car in the wet this year, I’ve never had a good feeling with it.
“I don’t know if we just don’t put energy into the tyres, or we run it too stiff in medium to high speed, or what is it?
“But it’s clear that it’s very unpredictable, and very difficult to drive. I’m glad Charles brought it home in P5. I heard he was also struggling out there.
“So honestly, a bit of a nightmare the whole race, but yeah, hopefully some dry races coming up, and we will try and go for it.”
With three GPs and a sprint still to come Ferrari remains in contention in the constructors’ championship.
“We will be alive until the very end,” said Sainz. “Three weekends now coming up that are going to be obviously important for the whole team.
“And now we need to refocus, we’ll regroup and see how we can approach these last three races in the best possible way.”
