Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz salvaged two points from the opening race of 2016, despite qualifying in seventh place. A mix of bad luck and equally poor strategy calls meant that the Spaniard was unable to capitalise on his early race pace.
Despite being well placed at the red flag, in sixth place, Sainz and his team squandered a strong result by running the soft compound tyre immediately afterwards, which ultimately would not last.
“I’m not entirely happy with today’s result because I think we could’ve scored more points with the car we have, but I did everything I could to finish as high up as possible…To finish in P9 is frustrating.”
The 21-year-old soon defended his team, admitting that the race was difficult to judge, whilst also appearing to add weight to the argument that Formula One cars should be made easier to follow for other drivers.
“The race was a bit of a chaos, so it was difficult to get it all right. After the red flag things got interesting and even though it’s not the easiest of tracks to overtake, I was able to do some good moves – some of them were quite tough! I did my race and I think we put on a good show.”
Eventually, Sainz reiterated his frustrations, giving a clear indication that the result was not telling of the true pace of the STR11. Perhaps he and Max Verstappen are two drivers to look out for in the coming races.
“I enjoyed it out there but I think we deserved to end up higher up instead of going backwards after qualifying in P7 yesterday.”
