Why Sainz didn't get mediums from Ferrari after pit stop in Verstappen fight

There were many surprised faces when Carlos Sainz went to the hard tyre again in his second pit stop in the Canadian Grand Prix. There weren't many laps left so mediums seemed the better, more aggressive choice. Afterwards, the Spaniard said that Ferrari might indeed have made a mistake.

It might have been tight to do twenty laps on the mediums, but opting for the hard tyre didn't provide that much of an advantage. After all, Verstappen's hard tyres were 'only' about eight laps older. Ferrari was thus very conservative and that did not ultimately work out as hoped.

Sainz explains choice Ferrari

In conversation with Auto, Motor und Sport Sainz says: "In hindsight, maybe we should have tried the mediums. We didn't expect the safety car to stay out for so long and that would have reduced the remaining kilometers to be driven. In sixteen laps the medium would probably have been the better tyre and I would have had a better chance to attack Max."

The safety car entered the track at lap 50, while the field was only released five laps later. Ferrari's reasoning is understandable, because the removal of Yuki Tsunoda's car at the exit of the pit lane indeed took a relatively long time. It took some ten minutes just to salvage the car, as repair work on the guardrail or wall was not necessary.