Carlos Sainz: “We have to stay in the race for victory”
The Spanish driver, who will leave Ferrari at the end of the season to join Williams, sums up the team's recent Grand Prix. According to him, the team is losing the development race and is now outpaced by its three rivals. An unacceptable situation, which should force the Italian team to react in the second half of the season.
Can Ferrari return to victory this year? After two victories at the beginning of the season, in Australia with Carlos Sainz and in Monaco with Charles Leclerc, the Maranello team seems to have fallen back in the hierarchy, now overtaken by Red Bull, McLaren, and Mercedes in recent Grand Prix events. Its recent results reflect this new trend, with the Italian team only achieving two podium finishes in the last six races. This negative trend particularly worries Carlos Sainz, who laments that Ferrari seems to be losing the development race after what had been an ideal start to the season.
Performance drop
This setback is all the more frustrating because, up until its victory and double podium in Monaco, Ferrari seemed to be the main threat to Red Bull in the title race, especially since the Austrian team was starting to perform less well. But since this success, Frédéric Vasseur’s team seems to be struggling to keep up, due to a poorly developed car suffering from many rebound problems starting from the Spanish Grand Prix because of the introduction of a new update on the car.
An issue that forced Ferrari to go back to find performance again, thus causing the team to lose three months of work according to the Spaniard’s words. Meanwhile, Red Bull, McLaren, and Mercedes capitalized on Ferrari’s weakness to advance and even surpass the Italian team.
Currently, the Woking team leads Ferrari by 21 points in the constructors’ standings, thanks to a series of ten consecutive podiums. Mercedes, on the other hand, seems to be on the rise with three victories in the last four weekends and looms as a serious threat to Ferrari in this end of the season. For Carlos Sainz, it is already ahead in terms of performance.
« It is clear that now, with Mercedes on this kind of circuit like Silverstone or here, they are very competitive and they are faster, » said the son of the double world rally champion at the end of the Spa race after another victory for Mercedes. With 170 points scored in the last six races, compared to 93 for the Italian team, the German team is now only 79 points behind its rival and could take advantage of the poor form of the red team to claim third place in the team standings. Aware of now being the fourth force on the grid, Ferrari must react quickly according to the statements of its driver Carlos Sainz, or risk seeing the chances of victory and even podium finishes vanish definitively.
« It is time for us to lower our heads and try to develop this car to not only fight against Mercedes, but also to close the two or three tenths that Red Bull and McLaren have on us. » The winner of the Australian Grand Prix urged his team to work hard to close the gap with Red Bull and McLaren, especially on the bouncing issues affecting the car’s performance. The Spaniard emphasized the need to introduce more effective improvements, similar to the adjustments made by McLaren since the Miami Grand Prix or the new front wings brought by Mercedes in Monaco.
An optimism nevertheless always present
Despite the current difficulties, Sainz remains confident in Ferrari’s ability to turn the situation around. The team boss, Frédéric Vasseur, shares this optimism and has stated that the upcoming Grand Prix should be more suitable for the car. Ferrari’s goal will therefore be to limit the damage against its rivals while working on necessary improvements.
With four teams now fighting for top positions, the end of the season promises to be exciting. If Ferrari manages to solve its rebound issues, it could still hope to find its way back to victory, perhaps as soon as the next Grand Prix in Zandvoort for the return of Formula 1.
