Revealed: How a ‘miraculous recovery’ helped Ferrari catch McLaren by surprise

Carlos Sainz revealed his hard tyres made a “miraculous recovery” during the Italian Grand Prix, which helped him complete a one-stop strategy for Ferrari on Sunday.

Sainz finished fourth in his final Monza outing as a Ferrari driver, while team-mate Charles Leclerc took victory for the Scuderia in front of a jubilant home crowd by taking a one-stop strategy, with the McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris stopping twice.

Ferrari make ‘miraculous recovery’ to make one-stop strategy work at Italian GP

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher and Sam Cooper

After pitting on lap 15, Leclerc was able to stay out until the end of the race on the same set of hard tyres, whereas both McLaren drivers stopped again for a fresh set of rubber later on in proceedings.

When it became apparent that the Ferrari pair would be hanging on until the end and with Leclerc in the lead, the noise from the tifosi in attendance at Monza became ever-louder until the chequered flag.

Given Sainz and Leclerc were able to make the one-stop strategy work, the Spanish driver elaborated further on how they were able to make it pay off – even when the tyres were in “crisis” at one stage.

“I think it was more or less 10, 15 laps into the second stint that I realised the deg was not huge on the hard,” Sainz explained to media including PlanetF1.com at Monza.

“Then as soon as the others stopped, actually, my tyres were almost gone. And then, for some reason, I think Charles and I went through a phase of high deg on the hards, and then they miraculously recovered, and that’s what allowed us to go to the end.

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“But there was a point when the others started boxing that the tyre was really in crisis, but then the last 10 laps, the tyre recovered, and we could keep a decent pace to the end.”

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur added that the choice between stopping once and twice was a close one, given the nature of the race and how it unfolded.

With Sainz showing foresight on his part, the team boss added he perhaps did not go as hell-for-leather on his tyres early on in order to make his strategy work.

“This kind of race, when you have 53 laps, you have some laps when you are thinking about one stop, some laps that you are thinking about two stops, you push more or less,” Vasseur said.

“Perhaps Carlos anticipated a bit more the fact that we could do one stop, and perhaps subconsciously you have it in your mind, and you push a bit less.

“But it’s quite often that at the end of the race, [you ask] why we didn’t push more or less, or whatever, but I think it’s their feeling when they are in the car.

“They have the feeling if they are overloading the tyres or not from track to track, I think it’s more a mental feeling.”

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