Ferrari team boss on Sainz spin: 'Can't really blame him'

"In the first stint of our race, the pace was okay. Carlos tried to push a couple of times to get ahead of Ocon who was slow in front of him, allowing Verstappen and Alonso to get away at the front," explained Vasseur, who saw Sainz lose part of his front wing when attempting to overtake the Alpine driver. The Ferrari driver was able to continue, however, but was brought in afterwards to swap his hard tyres for mediums.

Sainz's mistake

Sainz himself was not at all happy about that choice. As a result, the Spaniard did not seem to be on the right strategy to score a podium finish, but in the end, it was the driver himself who ensured that no more than eighth place was possible. On the wet tarmac, Sainz spun, dropping himself back to eighth place.

"Then when the rain came, we were P5 and P7, and we decided to take a risk and try for P3. The conditions were very difficult to manage because the rain turned out to be worse than forecast, so you cannot really blame Carlos for the mistake, but we need to look at why our pace was not so strong in the wet.", Vasseur said in his employer's press release.

Ferrari hopes for more in Spain

Still, despite finishing behind Red Bull, Mercedes and Aston Martin, Ferrari takes some positives from Monaco. "Looking at the weekend as a whole, our qualifying pace was good, and we have to aim to repeat that next week in Barcelona. The field is so tight you have to put everything together, and the slightest mistake is costly. We will have some updates on the car which should be a step forward in terms of performance, so let's wait and see what we can do in Spain."