Carlos Sainz Jnr was disappointed his last-lap pass on Nico Hulkenberg wasn’t shown during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver’s lunge down the inside of the Renault at turn 11 meant he finished tenth and claimed the point which moved him ahead of Pierre Gasly into sixth in the championship. It means Sainz is the first driver from outside Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull to finish inside the championship top six since 2015.“I’m not going to talk too much about it,”he said, “but I think everyone has been talking about this sixth place midfield battle for the whole weekend. And then the fight was down to the last lap and in one of the last corners and still they don’t show it on TV.
“So it’s obviously strange that everyone hypes this sixth place battle, but in the end no one shows it on TV.”
He said his move was the last chance he had to pass Hulkenberg before the end of the race.
“I just got close enough to Nico to throw a move into turn nine and decided to pull back out of it and try in 11. But I didn’t get the run out of 10 that I wanted.
“So it meant I arrived too late and bit far behind. I saw a gap in the inside, but it was really small. [I thought] if it worked with Perez, then we have to try to make it work with Nico and I throw the move and made it stick.
[icon2019autocoursempu]”It’s crazy that at the end of the championship we’re fighting in the last lap in the last overtaking opportunity of the track.”
Sainz spent much of the race stuck behind his team mate Lando Norris, which eventually prompted him to make a second pit stop for fresh tyres.
“There was no DRS at the beginning, we couldn’t go through traffic, it just compromised our whole race. And, the whole race behind Lando, behind Renault, with the dirty air, [it was] very difficult to manage the tyres.
“At the end, I was going to get past by Daniil [Kvyat] and by [Sergio] Perez. And I said our only chance is by getting Nico at the end pitting for a medium. We did it.”
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DAllein (@)
1st December 2019, 17:21
Carlos.
This is not WWE… yet.
Or maybe Netflix bought the rights to spin this story into the whole series “Sainz Vs The Universe. Netflix Story”.
And besides you mentioning some hype, I think there was not much real hype about this. 6th place is, well, 6th place. Quite dull no matter which team you are driving for.
So, all in all, you should be glad yourself to have done this, regardless of it being shown on screens.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
1st December 2019, 17:27
I’d respectfully disagree.
This is the story of a team that has been stumbling for the last few years finally coming (relatively) good this season.
This is the story of a driver from the midfield breaking into the top 6 standings that have typically been locked out by the top 3 teams in this recent era.
Today, it was P2 and the midfield that kept me interested in the race. Hamilton did a great job in qualy and the race, but breaking ~20s clear of the next car is – while commendable – dull to watch, no different from Vettel breaking the DRS gap and disappearing into the distance in 2013.
So yeah, I’d like to see the action happen, no matter where it happens, rather than rigidly sticking to a script that focuses on only key/top positions.
Nuggy1980
1st December 2019, 17:36
How wrong you are.
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
1st December 2019, 17:46
This wasn’t the first time we have watched a full lap of a leader dully bringing it home despite the great action happening elsewhere, but I don’ texpect you to understand that there are teams and drivers other than Hamilton and Mercedes. The sixth does not only mean much for the team, being their best driver result in seven years, it is also a tremendous job of disrupting the dominance of the past four seasons. Sainz had an amazing year and it was surely more thrilling to watch than Hamilton glory drive to yet another predictable victory.
pastaman (@)
1st December 2019, 19:35
So much duller than watching the leader cross the line 20 seconds ahead of the next car… or most of your comments.
Ipsom
1st December 2019, 17:44
I was looking forward for this the entire weekend. And what’s infuriating is that many times there have been some incredible action happening at the midfield only for the camera to cut to the leader cruising in final lap
But congrats to Sainz and McLaren, great achievement!!
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
1st December 2019, 17:47
Just a note on why this wasn’t shown live.
They are obligated to show the leaders crossing the line for commercial reasons as those tend to be the images that are used in the evening news reports & therefore get the most exposure.
They have the facility to use splitscreen/picture in picture but won’t for the last lap again because there going to be the images picked up by the wider media & teams, sponsor’s etc.. want it full screen.
As to why they don’t use splitscreen/pip outside of the last lap, partly because some of the broadcast partners don’t like those screen setups and also because they factor in that some people may be watching on smaller screens (Tablet devices for instance) & that splitscreen/pip setups are harder to view on smaller screens. There is also again commercial considerations as it’s harder to see the sponsor logo’s in the small boxes.
Jere (@jerejj)
1st December 2019, 18:42
@gt-racer I was about to post something very similar along the lines of ”They are obligated to show the leaders crossing the line” until I saw you had already done that, but yes, it indeed is a standard feature to show the race leader crossing the timing line/passing the chequered flag, so entirely understandable.
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
1st December 2019, 18:47
I’m sure you are right, and they are commercially obligated to show the leader crossing the line. But they don’t need to show that image for future articles, they can still capture it for future use without showing it live.
Either way, this will continue to annoy me until the the broadcasters change their policy/commercial arrangements. Until then I’ll try experiment more with any alternative camera feeds I have access to so I’m not reliant on the tv director.
On the plus side – happy that Sainz scored the point he needed to claim 6th place. He deserves it a lot more than Gasly, and even Albon imo. Although it would have been nice for Hulk to score in his final race I don’t think it will make much difference to him in the grander scheme of things.
Sonics (@sonicslv)
2nd December 2019, 0:49
@gt-racer I understand the reasons hence why I don’t really mad at it like some people are here. I only wish they will release those footage, hopefully on many angles in the YT channel. So far I think F1 YT channel is the most improved since taken by Liberty and their video on how Sainz go from last to podium last race in Brazil is really good.
Sonics (@sonicslv)
2nd December 2019, 1:12
And they did show Perez, Sainz, and Ricciardo pass on the last lap on the race highlight in YT.
JCCJCC
2nd December 2019, 9:56
I understand that they are forced to show the winner crossing the line. But that does not mean they need to follow his last lap and his victory lap. Also there’s several other possible options like split screening.
Hugh (@hugh11)
1st December 2019, 18:03
I’m pretty sure that at least some of the battle wasn’t when Hamilton crossed the line. For a while there, we were watching Bottas about 1.5 seconds behind Leclerc, rather than Sainz/Hulk/Ricc all about 5 tenths away from each other.
José Lopes da Silva
1st December 2019, 19:32
The story of Sainz’s season.
Homerlovesbeer (@homerlovesbeer)
1st December 2019, 20:40
I was thinking to myself “come on ffs show the action in the mid field, not a car cruising around.”.
Well done Sainz……great job.
Markus (@aesto)
1st December 2019, 21:07
Just watched it on F1 TV, gotta hand it to him, pretty nice move. He wasn’t close enough on the first straight, and Hulkenberg seemed to have the inside covered on the second straight, so he feigned on the outside, switched over and sent it down the small gap left on the inside. Locked up, but got it turned in anyway. Props.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
2nd December 2019, 0:13
Indeed, I had his onboard for his last stint and he made it stick at the very last occasion, it was pretty tense and a nice move! He could have made his life easier though if he hadn’t missed the chicane a few laps earlier. Props to him, really a mature season and deserved results.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
1st December 2019, 22:13
Saddly TV totally failed to show this. To bad.
This is why Seinz is quietly becoming the most under ratted driver in F1.
Shimks (@shimks)
1st December 2019, 23:25
Once again the quality of today’s entertainment was significantly reduced by a rubbish programme direction. If I can sit at home and realise that they are focusing on the wrong action at the wrong time then they should be able to too, seeing as they are the professional. Race after race, this happens multiple times.
Will he get out of the pits before or after the competitor? Ooh, it’s gonna be tight! Nah, instead, show me an identical replay of a pitstop that I just watched.
wayne
2nd December 2019, 5:42
even Bottas quick pit stop was not shown properly with the timing going off before the info could be aired. very poor direction.
FlyingBasil
2nd December 2019, 11:47
This Abu Dhabi GP was by far the worst TV coverage of any race in 2019 (and possibly of the past 5 or 6 years). Its not just Sainz, it every car behind 6th place. Kvyat’s overtakes also were not shown (either at all or not in the right time) How many times have we seen a Williams during the race? Even Minardi was shown more in the past The whole season was terrible in this respect, and it seems to go down from race to race.
Doyright (@thom)
2nd December 2019, 16:34
Agree that the coverage of this race wasn’t great. Sainz emerged from his final stop with about 8 seconds to close up on Hulkenberg. IMO his whole charge toward and ultimately passed the Renault (on the fricking FINAL lap of the season after battling all year long to deliver results arguably beyond his equipment… while The Hulk tried to end his F1 career with dignity, no less) should have been front and centre. Another Hamilton win from pole is fine. But it’s standard procedure and with the top five spots sewn up for many laps, this was the most scintillating story on track. To have to watch the position graphic on the left of screen to know what was going on was not great at all. All this ‘improving the racing’ and ‘for the fans’ stuff we hear from Liberty… and then five laps of the leaders cruising home while Sainz secured a truly impressive result with a seriously ballsy move…
JMDan (@danmar)
2nd December 2019, 21:20
A tip for he FIA : multiple views on screen when warranted.
Balue (@balue)
3rd December 2019, 6:49
@danmar You mean like picture in picture? That’s obviously too too technically advanced for F1..
JMDan (@danmar)
3rd December 2019, 8:42
No, just do split screens. Maybe show two or four camera views at the same time. Surely F1 can do that. :-)
Balue (@balue)
3rd December 2019, 6:50
Both Sainz and Perez’ moves were helped by too nervous defending TBPF.