Sainz balks after Monza: 'That happened a lot earlier than I expected'

Carlos Sainz led the Italian Grand Prix after the start of the race. However, the Spaniard was soon outsmarted by Max Verstappen in his RB19. Sainz briefly thought he could win the race, until his tyres soon gave way.

Pirelli tyres Sainz going down

On lap 15, Verstappen passed Sainz for good and the Netherlands, as often happens this season, disappeared on the horizon. At the start of the race, the Ferrari driver did think he could still win. "Halfway through [the first stint] it I felt like I had it fairly under control, but then I think around lap 10 to 12, I started feeling the rear left tyre giving up a lot, like a lot earlier than I would have expected,," Sainz began.

"At that point I realised I had used my tyres too much and that I was going to suffer a lot for the rest of the race because it was going to make me box early into a hard tyre and then the second stint was going to be very long. It's exactly what happened and my feeling was correct. I didn't expect to degrade so much, but it was clear that I was pushing very, very hard to keep them behind, probably harder than what the car [could do] or what I should have done."

Red Bull quicker racer than Ferrari

Whereas Ferrari was completely out of the front of the field at Zandvoort, the Scuderia was the second team at Monza. "If you compare us to Mercedes and other teams, it looked like we did have some decent pace this weekend. If you compare us to a Red Bull, they were clearly quicker especially from lap five-six, once the tyres come into temperature, and you're driving on a hotter tyre with less grip than the first five laps when the tyre is new."

"That is where you clearly feel that the Red Bull can make a difference and can either manage more but keep a good pace, or they can either just push more for a faster pace and have less degradation. It's difficult. We are trying to find the solution and the way forward. I do believe a lot of it is still aerodynamics, and we still need to keep working on our aero package for next year. For this year, I think it's what we have, and that's why they are so dominant in the races," Sainz concluded.