Again Carlos Sainz was at a disadvantage in the Ferrari duel against Charles Leclerc at the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. But the Spaniard looks much more relaxed after third place than after his team-internal defeat in Bahrain a week before. And for a good reason.
“I’m happier than in Bahrain, definitely,” says Sainz. “We’ve made good progress here in terms of my feeling for the car. I feel like we’ve taken a small step in the right direction.”
The main advantage was that the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix took place just a few months after the 2021 race. “The car [von 2021] gave me a very good feeling and I was super quick here. Now doing the same route just 100 days later with a car that doesn’t give me exactly what I need has helped me a lot.”
As a result, he understood exactly which points of the vehicle needed to be worked on, he assures. “It has given me a better view of the situation. I now know exactly where to start going forward and what kind of curve to work.”
The 27-year-old speaks of “two to three places” where he lacked confidence this year on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. “I felt so good about that last year. That wasn’t the case this year. That gave me a good starting point in the data that should help me to become stronger in the future.”
There are two problems, as he says: “I don’t drive the car the way it should be driven. Also, the car doesn’t give me exactly the feeling I need. The combination of those two things will give me that work week.”
For reasons of secrecy, he does not want to go into more detail. But he reveals: “In terms of experience, this is the best year so far.”
Stuck on startup
In the race itself, he initially dropped back to fourth place, then benefited from Sergio Perez’s bad luck with the virtual safety car and ultimately finished third. With Perez it got very tight at the pit exit. Sainz only got the place back after Perez restarted, but then never had the pace of Leclerc and Max Verstappen.
“I got off to a good start. Then I got wedged between Checo and Charles and had to lob. That allowed Max to sit next to me and accelerate out into Turn 2. That was just a bit unfortunate because I had nowhere to go. But good starts are important throughout the year, we have to keep it that way.”