Breaking news
Formula 1 Monaco GP
McLaren now knows why it struggled in Spain's Monaco-like S3
Carlos Sainz says McLaren’s sector three struggles at the Spanish Grand Prix were made worse by a problem on his car that only emerged in the post-race test.
Jonathan Noble
Published: May 23, 2019, 8:43 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The Woking-based outfit had hoped that a major upgrade it introduced for the Barcelona event would allow it to challenge near the front of the tight midfield pack, but neither Sainz nor teammate Lando Norris made it through to Q3.
Swift pit stops and a good strategy call during the late-race safety car helped Sainz grab points in Barcelona, but the team was still mindful that it had not been quick enough in the third sector in Spain that offers a good indicator of expected Monaco form.
But concerns that its lack of pace there could point towards a difficult Monte Carlo weekend have been eased by the outfit finding out that something was amiss in Spain.
“In Barcelona, we learned a lot from that test,” explained Sainz. “We obviously analysed what happened in qualifying and the race, and we understand why particularly in our case we were missing a lot of performance in the last sector.
“We found an issue, we found a problem, and hopefully it will bring us to good spirits here knowing that the car was not at 100% back at Barcelona.”
Pushed on whether the discovery was linked to a wrong set-up or something actually broken, Sainz did not wish to elaborate.
“I cannot go too much into detail," he said. "There was something not working as it should.”
The discovery of the Spanish GP problem has left Sainz more hopeful for McLaren’s prospects for Monaco, although he admits there is great uncertainty about whether his car will be well suited or struggle on the tight circuit.
“It’s another one of those tracks that has been good for me in the past,” he said. “There is a bit of a question mark this year more than others due to this tight midfield and this big [swing] of performance that we have from China to Baku to Barcelona.
“Here there is not one solid midfield team dominating at the moment and that probably makes us wonder what will happen in Monaco. We’ve been consistent, we’ve been doing some good Sundays lately so hopefully we can keep that up."
He added: “The low speed hasn’t been our strength this season, so then you would say why are you strong in Bahrain? Bahrain there were a lot of long straights and hairpins where we know we are good at. But consecutive low-speed corners, we haven’t been at our best.
“We can see China, long corners, we were not at our best. That is why Monaco is a question mark. It is short, sharp corners, but it is low speed so we don’t know if we will behave like in Bahrain or like in Barcelona last sector.
"That is a big question mark for us and hopefully we will know on Thursday. In FP2, I will start to know what we are looking at.”
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Vettel hopes Mercedes form "irrelevant" for unique Monaco
Next article Monaco GP: Hamilton beats Verstappen by 0.059s in FP1
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jonathan Noble
Brundle awarded OBE in King’s New Year’s honours
Formula 1
Formula 1
Brundle awarded OBE in King’s New Year’s honours
The new rules dilemma that will define the 2025 F1 season
Formula 1
Formula 1
The new rules dilemma that will define the 2025 F1 season
Verstappen issues Red Bull title warning in push for RB21 progress
Formula 1
Formula 1
Australian GP
Verstappen issues Red Bull title warning in push for RB21 progress
More from
Carlos Sainz
Lewis Hamilton: Younger F1 drivers are “more and more cautious” about racing in rain
Formula 1
Formula 1
Singapore GP
Lewis Hamilton: Younger F1 drivers are “more and more cautious” about racing in rain
What the drivers are expecting from F1's return to Sepang
Formula 1
Formula 1
Bahrain GP in Malaysia
What the drivers are expecting from F1's return to Sepang
More from
McLaren
Why McLaren cannot fix its F1 car handling until 2027
Formula 1
Formula 1
Singapore GP
8 h
Why McLaren cannot fix its F1 car handling until 2027
Oscar Piastri on his Singapore puncture: “Ironically, it probably helped”
Formula 1
Formula 1
Singapore GP
Oscar Piastri on his Singapore puncture: “Ironically, it probably helped”
Latest news
Spy shots of 2027 NASCAR Ford Mustang testing at Charlotte, but what's different?
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
1 h
Spy shots of 2027 NASCAR Ford Mustang testing at Charlotte, but what's different?
Five key takeaways from F1's big African Grand Prix reveal in Rwanda
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 2 h
Five key takeaways from F1's big African Grand Prix reveal in Rwanda
Niels Koolen makes switch to Abel Motorsports ahead of 2027 Indy NXT campaign
Indy NXT
IndL Indy NXT 4 h
Niels Koolen makes switch to Abel Motorsports ahead of 2027 Indy NXT campaign
GT World Challenge Portimao: All you need to know about season finale featuring Max Verstappen
GT World Challenge Europe Endurance
WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 4 h
GT World Challenge Portimao: All you need to know about season finale featuring Max Verstappen
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe