Scuderia Ferrari started the season poorly. With 26 points from the first two races, the traditional Italian team is in 4th place in the constructors’ championship and is 61 points behind leaders Red Bull. But not only with the understanding of the new car there seems to be construction sites, because Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz is also with not satisfied with his performance so far.
The Spaniard is ahead of his team-mate Charles Leclerc in the World Championship standings, but the Monegasque was clearly the faster of the two in the first two races of the season, but was slowed down by technical problems. Sainz is still missing something, especially in qualifying, as the 28-year-old himself emphasizes.
“I haven’t managed to qualify well so far,” says Sainz. In Bahrain, he qualified fourth, 0.154 seconds behind Leclerc, who only drove one fast lap in the third qualifying segment. In Jeddah the gap was a lot bigger at 0.511 seconds. Leclerc was second, Sainz only fifth, which also thwarted better chances against the Mercedes in the race.
Ferrari star Sainz: That’s the biggest problem with the car
“But the feel of the car is okay,” he adds. “Our biggest problem is when we’re behind other cars. In the first stint in Bahrain or in the first stint in Jeddah. It’s difficult for you to follow other cars in our car.”
“We already have an inherent problem with overheating and it only gets worse when we drive in the dirty air. That’s the main problem. Otherwise the car always feels good in free practice. So far it’s only been me haven’t managed to nail the qualifying laps yet.”
“But I’m not worried about that, because it will improve over the course of the season when I develop a better feeling for it,” said Sainz with certainty. The Spaniard already had a bad start to the season in 2022, but was able to keep improving over the course of the season, making him an equal opponent for his team-mate in the last few races.
“After all, I’m relatively consistent in the race. I score points, even if they’re not the right points. I want to be on the podium and I want to fight for race wins. We’re not that far yet. And as long as we’re not that far we need to get the points and focus on development.”