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Carlos Sainz has said that like Charles Leclerc, he too suffered from brake issues during the 2024 Bahrain GP. Speaking in the post-race press conference, the Spanish driver suggested that his problems had been resolved in cleaner air during the race.
Both Ferrari drivers complained about the overheating of their brakes, with Leclerc mentioning severe overheating that compromised his performance. Sainz claimed that this was a problem that could not be discovered during preseason testing and was triggered by following cars closely. The Spanish driver also explained that his brake issues were resolved once he was out of the dirty air of the car ahead of him and was in cleaner air.
Asked by Sportskeeda if the brake overheating issues had been highlighted in pre-season testing and about its severity on his car, Carlos Sainz said:
“I don't know the level of severity he had but for me it was at one point pretty bad too. It's something that you cannot discover in testing because in testing you never put yourself in 10 laps consecutive behind four cars getting all the hot air from the four cars in front and the brakes never cool down. I tried not to panic. I tried to put the side that was more heated, and I took a different line on the straights to cool them down.”
"And yeah, at one point, the pedal started to go quite long and also a lot of brake vibrations, which changes your feeling on the braking quite a lot. But yeah, I kept it cool, managed them, and as soon as I got a bit of clean air, it cleared and it became a lot better. But it's something that we definitely maybe need to take a bit more margin going into the next few races.”
Carlos Sainz reckons brake issues did not stop him from clinching a podium
Carlos Sainz explained that his brake issues occurred in the first stint and after the first pitstop of the race when he had to follow cars closely. However, he claimed that he saved his brakes at a particular stage of the race after which the problem was resolved. The Spaniard believes that more than the brakes, his start wasn’t good enough to launch a bid for a better position on the grid.
Asked where the brake problems hampered his race, Carlos Sainz said:
“Yes, the first stint and the beginning of the second stint, whenever we were in traffic, we were having a lot of brake vibrations and the pedal at one point started to go long. So it was always a balancing act between, do I go for it and try to get rid of the dirty air and overtake people, or do I start saving my brakes because they're going to fail or something's going to happen."
"I started saving by moving a bit on the straight to cool the side that it was getting hotter and the vibration started to get better. And then I could start to make moves and move forward. But as I said, the start wasn't great. The brakes were still a bit of a limitation for a bit. And then once everything settled, I could do my pace, do my overtakes and go for the podium.”
Despite Red Bull claiming the top two spots on the podium, the encouraging sign was the narrow gap between Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez. The Ferrari driver clinched third place but his race pace was similar to the Mexican until they were on different sets of tyre compounds.
In qualifying, Ferrari is close to Red Bull and might have an edge. With Jeddah being a circuit with a completely different layout, the race weekend could unfold differently and throw up a mixed result.
