Ferrari lift lid on ‘strange’ Carlos Sainz issue after ‘smells like fuel’ radio message

Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur says the Scuderia still don’t know why Carlos Sainz briefly smelled fuel in the cockpit of his SF-24 in the early laps of the United States Grand Prix.

But whatever caused the “strange” problem, it disappeared after a few corners and he was back up to speed before going on to finish second behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Carlos Sainz: It smells a lot like fuel in the car, guys

Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock

Although Sainz lined up third on the Austin grid with Leclerc behind him, it was the Monegasque driver who made the better start as he pounced on Max Verstappen and Lando Norris’ off-track antics to lead the race.

Sainz slotted into third behind Verstappen with Norris P4.

But the Spaniard suffered car troubles as he reported that he had “no power on the exit of the corners” before worryingly adding that “it smells a lot like fuel in the car, guys.”

Whatever the issue was, it cleared up by itself and Sainz was back up to speed – but by then he’d lost the DRS to Verstappen ahead and believes that cost him a shot at the victory.

“I had some sort of issue that meant that I had very little power at the exit of the corners,” he told media including PlanetF1.com in the post-race press conference. “That made me lose a couple of seconds, and most importantly, the DRS with Max.

“And then you are in that 1.5, two-second, three-second gap, that is the worst for tyres and car balance, which meant I just had to settle until the pit stop windows.”

Pitting four laps before Verstappen, Sainz was able to get the undercut on the Red Bull driver to make it a Ferrari 1-2 behind Leclerc.

F1 2024: Team-mate head-to-head stats

?F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between team-mates

?F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

“We managed to get the undercut,” he explained. “We boxed really early for that hard tyre, but from then on, I felt really comfortable, very confident, and we were very quick again.

“So a bit gutted that we were so quick all weekend and we obviously didn’t end up getting the win.

“But at the same time, Charles did a great job and a great start to put himself in the position to win it.”

Vasseur was asked about Sainz’s issue during his post-race briefing, but didn’t seem to be too worried about it.

“He smelled fuel in the car,” the team boss told the media including PlanetF1.com. “It was strange.

“But we didn’t see something here on the data but he came back after three or four corners and it came back normal, but I don’t know.”

But while the power issue cost Sainz, he concedes that not being able to pass Verstappen in the opening few laps when Leclerc was already dropping the Red Bull meant he did “not really” have a chance at beating his team-mate to the win.

“If I’m honest with you,” he continued, “as soon as I saw Charles in P1, then I saw that Max couldn’t keep up with Charles. I knew that if I couldn’t pass Max in the first three laps, it was going to be game over because then Charles and I were always very close in pace.

“Maybe there’s one race or two where he’s one or two tenths quicker in race day, another race where I’m maybe a bit quicker.

“It just means that track position around any Formula 1 track is key. And after that start, and especially having a car in between us and not being able to pass Max within the first five laps, I knew it was going to be very, very tough.

“Then, honestly, with a hard tyre, yes, I caught back some time, but I was just more pushing to see my pace and to see how good I was feeling this weekend because I was enjoying a lot driving the car this weekend and I knew I was quick.”

Ferrari slashed their deficit to Red Bull to just eight points with the 1-2 result while McLaren continue to lead the Constructors’ Championship with 544 points, 40 ahead of Red Bull and 48 up on Ferrari.

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