Sainz salvages a point from the pits

2015 Monaco Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops

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Carlos Sainz Jnr was amazed to claim the final point for tenth place despite having started from the pits.

The Toro Rosso driver ran the longest stint of any driver during the race, ekeing out the set of soft tyres he had fitted on lap 12 for the remaining 66 laps.

“To start from the pit lane in Monaco, on my debut, and to cross the line in P10 feels like a victory,” he said.

“It was a very good race from the team in terms of strategy and tyre management. We worked for it very hard and completed a super long stint on the soft tyre.”

While Lewis Hamilton’s switch to a set of super-soft tyres during the Safety Car period cost him victory, it was a strategy employed by several other teams including Red Bull (Daniel Ricciardo), Force India (Sergio Perez), McLaren (Jenson Button), Sauber (Felipe Nasr) and Williams (Felipe Massa).

2015 Monaco Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1Stint 2Stint 3Stint 4
Nico RosbergSuper soft (37)Soft (41)
Sebastian VettelSuper soft (36)Soft (42)
Lewis HamiltonSuper soft (38)Soft (27)Super soft (13)
Daniil KvyatSuper soft (28)Soft (50)
Daniel RicciardoSuper soft (36)Soft (29)Super soft (13)
Kimi RaikkonenSuper soft (37)Soft (41)
Sergio PerezSuper soft (36)Soft (28)Super soft (14)
Jenson ButtonSuper soft (35)Soft (29)Super soft (14)
Felipe NasrSuper soft (18)Soft (46)Super soft (14)
Carlos Sainz JnrSuper soft (12)Soft (66)
Nico HulkenbergSoft (1)Super soft (30)Soft (47)
Romain GrosjeanSuper soft (17)Soft (61)
Marcus EricssonSuper soft (14)Soft (24)Super soft (31)Super soft (9)
Valtteri BottasSoft (14)Super soft (42)Super soft (22)
Felipe MassaSuper soft (1)Soft (38)Super soft (23)Super soft (15)
Roberto MerhiSoft (35)Super soft (41)
Will StevensSoft (33)Super soft (43)
Max VerstappenSuper soft (29)Soft (17)Super soft (16)
Fernando AlonsoSoft (32)Super soft (9)
Pastor MaldonadoSuper soft (5)

2015 Monaco Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

DriverTeamPit stop timeGapOn lap
1Kimi RaikkonenFerrari24.17737
2Lewis HamiltonMercedes24.1810.00438
3Daniel RicciardoRed Bull24.2440.06765
4Felipe MassaWilliams24.3950.21862
5Valtteri BottasWilliams24.4120.23556
6Daniel RicciardoRed Bull24.5010.32436
7Valtteri BottasWilliams24.6410.46414
8Jenson ButtonMcLaren24.6610.48464
9Sergio PerezForce India24.7330.55636
10Nico HulkenbergForce India24.7580.58131
11Nico RosbergMercedes24.7890.61237
12Sebastian VettelFerrari24.8510.67436
13Felipe MassaWilliams24.9700.79339
14Jenson ButtonMcLaren25.0620.88535
15Romain GrosjeanLotus25.0770.90017
16Daniil KvyatRed Bull25.1190.94228
17Sergio PerezForce India25.1190.94264
18Marcus EricssonSauber25.2341.05769
19Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso25.3061.12912
20Marcus EricssonSauber25.3981.22138
21Lewis HamiltonMercedes25.4951.31865
22Marcus EricssonSauber25.6181.44114
23Felipe NasrSauber25.7321.55518
24Max VerstappenToro Rosso25.7361.55946
25Felipe NasrSauber26.4202.24364
26Roberto MerhiManor27.5543.37735
27Will StevensManor28.6064.42933
28Fernando AlonsoMcLaren30.3456.16832
29Nico HulkenbergForce India34.77310.5961
30Felipe MassaWilliams42.93418.7571
31Max VerstappenToro Rosso52.82128.64429

2015 Monaco Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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13 comments on “Sainz salvages a point from the pits”

  1. I really hope Sainz doesn’t get overshadowed by the whole “Verstappen is only 17” kind of comments. He is doing a sterling job so far.

    1. Carlos was driving an invisible race….not bad not good

      He was quite lucky there were some problems with cars in front of him

    2. Well, he got a point thanks to Verstappen today ^^

    3. maarten.f1 (@)
      24th May 2015, 20:50

      The hype seems very much to be about Verstappen. But both drivers are doing a really good job and I’m sure all the teams are keeping a close eye on both of them.

    4. Agreed — I think Sainz is actually doing a better job than Verstappen. I’m sick of the hype surrounding Verstappen.

  2. From what is emerging around the web, it seems team initially wanted to keep Lewis out, but he got nervous at the prospect of Nico and Vettel getting new tires, so he suggested to the team they should pit him.

    Basically, he was in the lead, and whatever he did, Nico and Vettel would do the opposite. Can’t really blame the team. He was a victim of an unfortunate safety car, and perhaps of his own defeatist attitude as soon as the race restarted.

    1. Looking at it, 5 out of 10 cars that were in the top 10 decided to pit. So you can’t even really call it a bad strategy call. There was apparently 50/50 chance that any of the cars behind him would pit. And he felt that way too, which made him nervous, thinking about defending the position on the old tires, and ultimately contributed to that pit call.
      He was also the only one of those 5 who pitted from the top 10, who actually lost a place.

    2. Mark Hitchcock
      24th May 2015, 20:44

      He got nervous because he saw on the big screen that the Merc mechanics were in the pitlane and thought that meant Nico and Vettel had stopped for new tyres so he had to cover them. The team were the ones who ultimately made the call to stop him. If they thought it was the wrong decision they should have told him to stay out.

    3. Apparently what Hamilton said was that his tyres were going off a bit, and he asked the team if he should pit – key word here is “should”.

      Basically Hamilton was asking if he had enough of a buffer to be able to pit and comfortably maintain the lead. Mercedes led him to believe that he did, and so he pitted with full confidence in the team, only to emerge behind Vettel and Rosberg.

      If you have enough of a buffer to pit without risking the lead under a safety car, it makes sense to use that lead and do the rest of the race with grippier tyres, instead of risking going into the barrier with worn/cold tyres.

      Mercedes apparently “miscalculated” the gap, presumably unaware that Lewis would catch the safety car and therefore lose a bit of his lead before he pitted.

      It should also be mentioned that Hamilton was stationary for 4.1s in the pit (1.3s slower than his earlier pit stop) as Ericsson delayed his release – without that he would’ve emerged in front of Vettel, and maybe Rosberg.

    4. Can’t blame the team? You enter in every single topic and say the same thing.
      Even the team said they are to blame.

  3. The one thing that was worrying is that he spend a great deal of the first part of the race behind ericsson and the pitstop put him right behind ericsson again! I know it’s monaco, but you have to overtake these guys which are at least 1 sec slower. Still, he is a great driver and will grow.

  4. Had to make my first comment here after this whole Mercedes strategy blunter… after watching the whole race and the after the race comments I don’t understand Hamilton’s comments. He said the team wanted him to stay out, but he felt he should pit because he was afraid of being on the “wrong” tire at the restart as he saw the pit crew on the TV screens and though ROS had/would pit for the super soft, but how could he saw the pit crew on the screens before telling the team he wanted to pit? The pit crew doesn’t get out unless the pit wall says so, and the pit wall initially told him to stay out… So he couldn’t have seen the pit crew before he asked the team to better pit him.
    My opinion on this case. It looks similar to the Silverstone qualifying last year, Lewis misjudged the SC situation and wanted to have the better tires advantage in the last laps, the strategists calculated the gap vs pit stop time and thought it was OK if the pit stop was “normal”. The pit wall decided (after discussions) that it was OK to pit, the pit crew was not so well prepared (definitely they thought they are done with the stops for today) and made a not-so-fast pit stop, another 1-1.5 sec was lost as Ericsson was passing on the pit lane as the result HAM exited the pits behind ROS and VET. So, I don’t think it was an issue of the strategists, and the team bosses didn’t do any good in blaming the team and apologizing to Lewis before analyzing the details. For me the blame for the whole situation is 50% driver, 50% team principal, both for misjudgment (the pit-stop was unnecessary in any case, don’t try to get an advantage were you already have a big one – the best car), and the responsibility for the outcome: 60% team principal (didn’t call off the pit despite having more that 1 min time to think and all the info), 30% driver (yes he didn’t had all the info, but had lack of confidence and with his experience should have kept position with 13 laps remaining), 10% team crew (slow pit stop, not first time for Merc crew). I think Wolff and specially Lowe should question themselves more i this case, and put more work into getting the race aspects of the team into a better shape!

  5. Mercedes know they have the drivers and constructors championship won whether Lewis or Nico wins the drivers.Are viewers too naive to realise they will do anything to spice up what will be a boring title race.Remember the old saying ‘no publicity is bad publicity’.

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