The numbers that prove Monza 2023 was Sainz’s best F1 race weekend

To the Tifosi screaming his name underneath the Monza podium, he was a god. To the muggers he chased down on the streets of Milan later that night, he was justice incarnate. To the members of the Formula 1 press corps listening to his reflections on the 2023 Italian Grand Prix, he was the same charming, erudite, Carlos Sainz.

Was this his best F1 race weekend performance, I asked him? You know how his childhood-hero-turned-racing-rival Fernando Alonso would’ve answered. Sainz’s reply, wonderfully predictably, was as down-to-earth as ever.

“Well, I'm not sure in F1,” he said – clad race suit colours tweaked to pay homage to Ferrari’s 2023 Le Mans victory. “I've done other strong weekends in F1 that maybe got a bit unnoticed when I was in the midfield, where I felt I extracted everything out of the car. Of this year, for sure. Of my Ferrari career probably.

“Of my F1 career, it's a tough call. But I felt like this weekend I was on it from the beginning – comfortable with the car especially over one lap. I felt really at home and I could put together strong laps [in qualifying] and snatch pole, but [the race] was again a bit tougher. It shows me exactly where we need to keep working on and where I will put my head down and keep pushing the team to keep working on our tyre understanding and our race pace understanding.”

That had been Sainz’s undoing in Ferrari’s glorious defeat last weekend. Its bespoke low-downforce package for Monza’s ‘Temple of Speed’ layout still not enough to topple Max Verstappen and Red Bull, nor stop the latest Sergio Perez recovery drive. Still the SF-23 chews through its rubber at far faster rate than the RB19.

But for 15 laps, Sainz put on a show that eclipsed team-mate Charles Leclerc and had Verstappen frustrated. As Lewis Hamilton had noted after this year’s British GP, when the Dutchman swears, you know he’s feeling the pressure. And that fierceness just hasn’t been needed of late. It really hasn’t since late 2021…

PLUS: Why Sainz was able to make F1's 2023 Italian GP as good as it was

Sainz dared to dream. Around “halfway through” his opening race stint in the lead from pole, he thought he might just be able to defy Verstappen to the end.

Sainz drove superbly in the early stages to hold Verstappen back without the benefit of DRS

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

“I felt like I had it fairly under control,” he mused of his point. “But then around lap 10 to 12, I started feeling the rear left tyre giving up a lot. Like a lot earlier than I would have expected.

“At that point, I realised I had used my tyres too much and probably to keep Max behind I had worn that rear-left tyre too much and that I was going to suffer a lot for the rest of the race because it was going to probably make me box early into a hard tyre. And then the second stint was going to be very long. It’s exactly what happened and my feeling was correct.”

Sainz’s shrewdness behind the wheel is perhaps what defines him best as a racing driver. He grasps situations so well and is unafraid to bend them to his will – often in the absence of strategy decisiveness from Ferrari – in making important calls. Recall here his decision to skip stopping for intermediates in the 2022 Monaco GP that sealed his podium there.

In battle, Sainz was superb – fearlessly holding off Verstappen for so long, then doing the same against Perez for as long as he could, plus brilliantly prevailing in the intra-team scrap with Leclerc at the end

But Sainz displayed many other traits last weekend to stir the question of it being his best ever F1 race event. The first, as Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur noted, was “from lap one in FP1 he was there”, showing the pace to challenge Verstappen. He led the way ahead of Leclerc, following on from doing likewise in Zandvoort the week before.

In battle, Sainz was superb – fearlessly holding off Verstappen for so long, then doing the same against Perez for as long as he could, plus brilliantly prevailing in the intra-team scrap with Leclerc at the end.

There were negatives, naturally. There’s a reason why Autosport’s driver ratings call for a ‘maximum’ and not perfection.

PLUS: Italian Grand Prix Driver Ratings 2023

Sainz earned a black-and-white warning flag for impeding McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in FP3, where they actually made needless light contact, plus he run afoul of the maximum laptime rule in qualifying (as did Leclerc), although he and Ferrari must share blame. And, it was a mistake – locking up into the Rettifilo chicane – that led Verstappen to finally pierce his defence.

Sainz wasn't absolutely perfect at Monza, but it was unquestionably his strongest showing of the year and arguably of his F1 career

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Then, although Verstappen’s “that was naughty” comment on their earlier skirmish there was hilariously hypocritical, Sainz’s second major defensive move against Perez at the same spot was perhaps just over the line of fair racing. But it was a close thing at a sequence where the attacker bears responsibility too. Plus, his movements in braking zones against Leclerc might’ve contributed to a shock late disaster for the home team.

But these are minor quibbles in the grand scheme of things. In a season where Verstappen and his dominant squad have throttled the narratives, it's only right to praise Sainz for making such a show. But what made Sainz’s Monza race all the more remarkable was that he held on despite never really having the best weapon his foes enjoyed: DRS.

On the lap Verstappen passed by, Sainz was able to use it on the run down-and-up to Ascari, then again into Turn 1 on the following tour. But he only opened his rear wing a third time all race when he passed Hamilton into Ascari when coming across the Mercedes on its contra-strategy mid-race. When Perez got ahead, he immediately fell out of range to deploy the overtaking aid.

This last Sunday was therefore allowing his rivals to show their speed in a different way – surging considerably later in straights when Sainz was concentrating on making corner gains and traction pulls. That’s what did for his tyres.

“I've had it before, in places like Austria or Canada where, once you get into a DRS, you can manage the tyres a bit better because they pull you on the straight and then you can control the exits and the traction and the medium-to-high speed a bit more,” he said of his overall lack of DRS.

“I never really had the chance to feel that, and I had to push quite a lot in the corners, to try and keep that gap and defend into Turn 1. In the end, it was just never possible for me to manage those tyres. It nearly cost me the podium, but I didn't want to go home with a feeling that I haven't tried, and I didn’t try to win, and stay ahead.

“I was committed to trying, and to make sure I was going to use all the life of those tyres to try to stay ahead. Nearly managed to do that in the first stint, but in the end, the stints are just a bit too long for us right now.”

Sainz had to push harder in the corners to make up the time others could easily gain back on the straights with DRS, which hurt his tyres

Photo by: Erik Junius

Vasseur wants to see Sainz now deploy the “good lesson also for the rest of the season”, of how starting a weekend very strongly in FP1 can lead to gains across a weekend. After all, Leclerc reckoned, “from FP1 to quali that was the case – I've been struggling more than Carlos”.

“And to be honest,” he added, “Carlos has done a very impressive job this weekend. From quali onwards, I was back on the pace, but that was a bit too late.”

Leclerc rued not having a slipstream on the final Q3 runs that might’ve gained him a tenth in this era of car designs at Monza, not the 0.4-0.6s it was worth with the previous ultra-high-downforce machines. That might’ve netted him pole given his gap was just 0.067s in third, but aside from Leclerc’s typical late qualifying surge, he struggled to keep pace with Sainz, Verstappen and Perez even with DRS active practically all race.

With session-topping results in FP2, FP3 and qualifying, he eclipsed his previous record of leading two sessions across a weekend (which Sainz did at Silverstone and Austin last year)

The consensus is that Leclerc is Ferrari’s lead star. That Sainz is a very able and rapid driver, but who has never shown the highest highs. Well, he sure did last weekend. That was only enough to beat Leclerc by 0.2s, his critics might say, but they didn’t fight the same race circumstances all things considered.

It should indeed take more evidence than two excellent race performances to reassess a driver’s position in the F1 pecking order, but Sainz is really building something right now. He’s got eight more 2023 events without the pressure of a title fight to mould that into serious momentum for the Scuderia’s latest targeted resurgence in 2024. And doing so couldn’t come at a better time with he and Leclerc are on the edge of contract extensions.

But there’s something Sainz and F1 can take for absolute certain from the 2023 Italian GP. This was indeed Sainz’s best in F1. With session-topping results in FP2, FP3 and qualifying, he eclipsed his previous record of leading two sessions across a weekend (which Sainz did at Silverstone and Austin last year).

Sure, it’s no grand slam sweep or even a second career F1 race win. But that really was quite some glorious defeat.

Sainz could take pride in his third place behind two superior Red Bulls

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool