Carlos Sainz called his Dutch Grand Prix performance “a mess” after a bad pit stop and a penalty made him finish only P8.
The Spanish driver had a difficult start to the race as he struggled to keep up with the rest of the top teams. However, things only got worse as a bad penalty cost him 12.7 seconds more than a normal one.
Then, Sainz was handed a 5-second time penalty for an unsafe release ahead of Fernando Alonso in the pits.
“It was a mess, the whole race in trouble,” Sainz said. “First with the confusing pit stop that we had and the yellow flag in which I saved myself by very small margins, and then the unsafe release.
“That wasn’t an unsafe release,” he argued. “I was launched into the pit lane correctly but the problem is that I had to brake to not take a McLaren guy out of his life.
“Because I took avoiding action, they give you a penalty – I find this very frustrating and I’m going to speak with the FIA now because I don’t understand it.
“I’m not happy with how the car felt in the race,” Sainz added about the Ferrari’s performance. “It was super tricky to drive, we were always fighting the rear a lot – a lot of overheating – and we need to find out why the car isn’t as strong in the race as it is in qualifying.”
