Mattia Binotto has criticised the race directors for their slowness in sending the Safety Car out during the Canadian Grand Prix.
The Safety Car was deployed in lap 49 after Yuki Tsunoda came out of the pits too hot and put his AlphaTauri car into the wall. But Binotto’s issue was with the delay between the crash and the decision for the Safety Car to be deployed.
This pause had an adverse effect on both Ferrari and their driver Carlos Sainz with the Spaniard approaching the pit lane entry just as the Safety Car was deployed.
Ferrari made the quick call to bring him and change for a new set of tyres for the remaining 11 laps but despite this tyre advantage over race leader Max Verstappen, Sainz was unable to pass the Dutchman who defended brilliantly to seal his fifth win in sixth races.
Sainz was left to ponder what could have been, as was Binotto who said the call to bring the Safety Car out “took a very long time.”
“I think it took a very long time for the decision to send the Safety Car out onto the track,” the 52-year-old said, as reported by Motorsport-Total.com.
“The Safety Car came when Carlos was just at the end of the long straight before the last corner.
“I think we only had one second to do that, and we reacted in that second. Without that good reaction, Carlos would have been in a very bad situation. And that also shows: we need good decisions from race control.”
With Verstappen comfortably out in front for the majority of the race, the chance of a Ferrari win was non-existent until the Safety Car deployment. Beforehand, the team were considering whether they needed to pit Sainz anyway in order to defend from a pushing Lewis Hamilton.
“That would have been very close,” Binotto added.
“If he had to defend himself, he would have had to be very fast, at least in the region of 1:17.4 or 1:17.3, so we considered whether to stay out or pit against Lewis.
“But how the race would have turned out without the final safety car period is hard to say.”
Having yet again missed out on his maiden race win, Sainz said it “hurts” considering he believed he had the fastest car on the track that weekend.
“The fact that victory does not come when you are the fastest perhaps hurts more,” the Spaniard told DAZN F1.
“I am not satisfied. It’s been too close to be satisfied. Especially with the pace I’ve had throughout the race, which has been very good.
“I have been very comfortable, all the time a little faster than Max.”
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