Carlos Sainz: « We know our car better now

Carlos Sainz suggested that Ferrari made good use of the break between the races in Melbourne and Baku and has returned on track with the car’s development.

The first three races of the season have been revealing events for Ferrari and Mercedes, who have lost ground compared to Red Bull and are generally competing with Aston Martin for the last place on the podium.

Sainz had previously suggested that the performance gap could prompt Ferrari to completely rethink the concept of their car, which the team rejected as an option. However, with this nearly month-long break, Sainz believes that the development work carried out by Ferrari behind the scenes will assist the team in their quest for competitiveness.

As announced to several media outlets, the Spanish driver assures that the team knows the car much better and that the break allowed them to redefine the directions of the development program. It was the number one objective of this three-week break, to truly identify the weaknesses we have and the strengths of our direct competitors, in this case Red Bull, who have a lead on everyone. We will try our best to come back and fight them as quickly as possible, he adds.

Positive points observed in Australia despite the disappointment

The Australian Grand Prix weekend will be remembered for Ferrari’s failed protest against the penalty imposed on Sainz towards the end of the race for colliding with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso during the restart on the 57th lap. Alongside his teammate Charles Leclerc’s retirement in the first lap, this zero-point score marks the worst start to a season in several years.

However, Sainz found some positive aspects of the difficult weekend in Melbourne, highlighting that their race pace had greatly improved. Our chances this weekend should be similar to the ones we had in Australia. It is true that in Australia, we took a slightly different approach in terms of settings, which seemed to work, he added.

Reassured by the pace of his Ferrari, Sainz hopes to achieve a result worthy of the Scuderia. « We were pretty quick in the race, whereas in the past we struggled, so I hope we can continue in this direction and feel more competitive this weekend. »