Carlos Sainz has urged his Ferrari Formula One team to continue working on improving its pitstops after yet another issue cost him the US Grand Prix.
Slow pitstops have hindered Sainz three times this year, at the British and Turkish Grands Prix, and again in the Austin race last Sunday.
The Spaniard lost about ten seconds at Silverstone, about five seconds in Istanbul, and three seconds in the United States.
Sainz believes the problems have cost him “quite a lot of points.”
“The pitstop, well, unfortunate again,” said Sainz after the US GP. “We need to keep looking at it and we need to keep improving as a team, because we are not happy with the situation.
“It has been a few pitstops now that we have been struggling with.
“From my side, I think it’s the second consecutive and the third all season, so it’s quite a lot of points there we are leaving on the table due to these small problems.”
At the Circuit of the Americas, Sainz finished eighth, three seconds behind Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas and seven seconds behind McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo.
The Ferrari driver believes the slow pitstop cost him fifth place, as he believes a proper pitstop would have allowed him to undercut his McLaren rival.
Sainz and Ricciardo collided as the Spaniard tried to pass the Australian following his pitstop, but Sainz was unable to overtake him.
“I think I would have been fairly easy with the undercut therevait on Ricciardo, but it is what it is,” said Sainz. “We need to keep working as a team to improve it. We need to keep improving a bit.
“There are points there that maybe this year are not so important, but if we want to be fighting for championships in the future, these are the kind of things that we need to become excellent at, and that we are maybe still lacking a bit.”
Sainz fell behind teammate Charles Leclerc in the standings following the United States GP, having been ahead of the Monegasque since the Hungarian GP.
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