Carlos Sainz has responded to criticism of Ferrari's strategy, despite a staff reshuffle designed to improve communication during the off-season. Team Principal Frederic Vasseur made a pledge to understand each of the mistakes in 2022 during his first weeks in the job , which led to significant changes in their strategy department before the start of the 2023 season. Inaki Rueda moved to a factory position while Ravin Jain now leads trackside operations. Changes were also made behind the scenes to improve the flow of communication. But despite the changes, Ferrari has still come under criticism for its management of races, most recently during the Spanish Grand Prix when they appeared to ignore a tactical plea from Charles Leclerc . Sainz notes that Ferrari's strategy department has been in "constant progress" but admits that it has not been the start to the season they hoped. "I would say that department is in constant progress and we're making, I think, a lot of progress. It just hasn't been an easy year for us," he told media, including RacingNews365.com .
Sainz: Strategy problems brought on by tough car
Sainz believes a lot of the problems have arisen from Ferrari's lack of pace during the races, as they have struggled to get to grips with their tyre management. "Our race pace this year has been a bit worse than our qualifying pace [and] there's always going to be doubts and criticism about our race execution," he explained. "I think that makes these first six races a bit more difficult to assess and judge. I do feel the team is doing everything they can, and everything we can, to be as strong as possible on that department. "But like always in everything, in every aspect [of F1], there's margin of improvement and we're doing it."
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