Sainz’s charge to a brilliant victory in Singapore on Sunday was helped by some clever driving, which included ensuring second-placed Norris was within DRS range in the closing stages so the McLaren driver could help keep the charging Mercedes cars at bay.
At one stage, after Norris had lost ground after playing defensive against George Russell, Sainz even had to back off dramatically to get the pursuing McLaren back on his tail.
His plan came off perfectly as Russell could not find a way past Norris, before his last-lap error in clipping the wall put him out of the race.
While Ferrari had helped tactically manage much of the Singapore GP, which included backing up the pack and trying to avoid the undercut by using Charles Leclerc as a buffer, it said Sainz’s late-race DRS calls were his own.
“It was the idea of Carlos,” said team principal Fred Vasseur. “I don't want to say it's obvious, but he knew he was more at risk with Mercedes than with Norris.
“With Norris we had the same tyres, and almost the same pace from the lap one. We were not really at risk with Norris except if we lost the tyres, so it was a clever move from Carlos to keep Norris into the DRS.”
Sainz himself said there was no doubt that he would have lost the win if either of the Mercedes cars, on fresh medium tyres at that stage of the race, had got past Norris.
“It's always tricky because you always put yourself under extra pressure,” he explained.
“You know that then you cannot have a lock-up and you cannot have a single mistake or a snap, because it means that then Lando’s going to have a chance to overtake you if he's in DRS. So, at that point you decide to give him the DRS, hoping that's going to be enough to keep the Mercs behind.
Source: Autosport