What Led Perez, Hulkenberg and Sainz to Pit During Dutch GP Sprint?

Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg had similar stories to share aftermath the F1 Dutch GP sprint race, where both were forced to pit for different issues, while Carlos Sainz had a test session.

For Cadillac’s Perez, it was straight into the pits at the start of formation lap in F1 Dutch GP sprint race at Circuit Zandvoort. The Mexican couldn’t start the race as a result and was stationed in the pits for couple of laps, before he ventured out on track for a test session.

He saw the chequered flag but was three laps down on the leaders, as Mercedes’ George Russell picked up the F1 Dutch GP sprint win over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and McLaren’s Lando Norris. The Mexican was classified 21st. But what happened to Perez ahead of the formation lap?

It was a hydraulics issues that forced the Cadillac mechanics to push Perez in the garage. They managed to do a good job to fix and send him out. And the Mexican was pleased to get some laps in, especially with the pace, where he felt he could match the likes of Haas and Williams.

“Yeah, we had a bit of a hydraulic issue and that meant that we lost two to three laps,” said Perez to F1 TV after the F1 Dutch GP sprint race. “We managed to fix it and by the time we went, the pace seemed to be on a par with Williams, with Haas, which was promising, and it’s promising for the rest of the weekend.

“Hopefully we can have a good qualifying later on today and yeah, a much better race for tomorrow.” On the other hand, Audi’s Hulkenberg started the F1 sprint race but dived into the pits midway. He was stationed in the pits for few laps as well, as the live timing put him under ‘retired’ list.

However, like Perez, even Hulkenberg emerged to complete a lap and see the chequered flag, finishing 17 laps down to the leaders – completing only seven race laps. He faced some sort of power issue from Lap 1 of the race. But the big positive was that Audi managed to fix it up and send him out again.

“Well, we went out at the end actually again for one lap,” said Hulkenberg to F1 TV after F1 Dutch GP sprint race. “Yeah, some sort of power issue right from the beginning. So, yeah, not much not much to say really, didn’t really do much. So, hopefully, it’s fixed. The team did some work, fixed something, and when I went out for that one lap, it felt back to normal. So, hopefully all okay for quali.”

Williams’ Sainz completed the whole F1 Dutch GP sprint race but not without a pit stop. Having started from the pitlane after changes made to the car from sprint qualifying, the Spaniard continued with his test session during the race itself. He pitted to change bits on his wing, but it didn’t do much.

Due to gravel moment in FP1, he suffered damaged to his car and was forced to use parts that are down on performance. It is a compromised car, something that will have to stick with until the updates in Baku. Sainz hopes that he can find something extra for F1 qualifying after nothing in sprint.

“Not much, to be honest,” said Sainz to F1 TV. “We we tried a few things on the car and did a few a pit stop to try a few things on the front wing, but unfortunately it didn’t give us much. So, yeah, looks like the compromise car that we’re running since yesterday is not working very well and we are suffering quite a lot.

“Maybe for quali we can find something extra. Let me see, I’m pushing with the team to see what we can what we can find going into quali, but unfortunately in practice in sprint we didn’t find nothing big,” summed up Sainz.