How Sainz’s “clever” move enabled him to repass Norris in US F1 GP

Daniel Ricciardo, Sainz and Norris went three-wide into Turn 12 on the opening lap in Austin.

As Norris attempted to go down the inside of the pair, Sainz went wide at Turn 12 to retain the position over the McLarens.

Explaining the events of the opening lap, Seidl was pleased his drivers came away from the opening lap unscathed. 

“Obviously when our two cars start next to each other on the grid that always gives you some nervousness,” Seidl said. “But at the same time, we speak a lot about these types of scenarios as well, about how we handle these situations, especially in the first lap and I have a lot of trust in those guys. 

“They know what they are doing and at the same time, they know they are free to race which is important because that’s how we get maximum performance out of them. It was an exciting first lap with all the manoeuvres that happened there. We got through without issues and actually Daniel was able to overtake Carlos, which was key for the result today.”

Sainz lost out to Ricciardo after Turn 12 but then was instructed to give the position back to Norris, after running off the track to maintain it.

The Ferrari driver gave the place back in the corners before the DRS detection zone, meaning he could re-overtake Norris down the straight.

Seidl described what Sainz did as “clever” and that he had no issues with it as it wasn’t against the rules.

“First of all with the incident between Carlos and Lando, from our point of view it was clear that Carlos only got Lando back because he went off the track, so that’s why we expected that he would give the position back, which he had to do later on,” Seidl explained. 

“But unfortunately he did it the clever way, so he could actually overtake Lando back straightaway on the next straight, so we couldn’t benefit from that.”

He was happy McLaren was able to limit the number of points it lost to Ferrari in Austin given its superior performance advantage.

“I think overall in the end, with the outcome of the race today, we need to be happy because at least we managed to jump one Ferrari and keep one behind Daniel which is a good result thanks to the good work of the team and the drivers,” Seidl added. “We have to accept that Ferrari was clearly better this weekend.”