Carlos Sainz facing off Austrian GP with boosted morale for various reasons. Mainly because of the good vibes he’s had lately Canadian GP and also during the tests at Fiorano last week, but also after hearing it from the Ferrari boss, Fred Vasseur “Carlos is an underrated driver.”

Those from Maranello are coming to Spielberg with a new pack of improvements, and as shown here, despite being owned by Red Bull, they’re confident they’ll be working on a track that suits them. leclerc When it comes into effect in 2022 Verstappen.

“Canada was a good run. Looking at the race pace, we went forward on Sunday, not backwards. We’re done. fourth and fifth “With the two cars, but the perception was different, it meant a boost of motivation for the whole team,” Sainz said at the press conference in Austria.

“Management tires It was also linked to a race weekend on a low-distortion track, which helped us. But it does show that even strategies become easier when you have a good car and can manage the tires. “We’re working on that to make sure we focus on racing speed and have a car like in Canada because it will help us fix race positions, make our strategy more flexible and have more fun.”

Sainz thanked the Maranello team for their efforts to be able to test the new parts last Tuesday. ‘shooting day’ “The team has done an incredible job with these improvements, which we are going to introduce this weekend. We have to congratulate them for their efforts and hope to stay a step ahead. We didn’t learn much in the Pirelli test. Test the tires and you can’t try anything for the races there,” he said, held at Fiorano.

Regarding the penalty he received in Canada for blocking Gasly, which left him 11th on the grid after finishing 8th in qualifying, Sainz offered a short-term solution to avoiding excessive traffic on the track: Split Q1 into two groups of 10 cars, with a duration of 8 minutes per group. One car per team, especially in short circuits. For Q2traffic would have already improved a lot and Q3 No problem. That shouldn’t affect the grid too much because the cars’ performance is split or there may only be one lap per car on the sprint weekend to see if it works.

Finally, Sainz described the rumors circulating about his disagreements with Fernando Alonso as “fake news”: “Our relationship is as always. It’s true that Fernando and me this year. fighting in very equal positions, but nothing changes. We know very well how to distinguish what is inside the track from what is outside, and we continue to do so. good fellowship. I’m not going to make a nonsense assessment about some of the things that have been published,” he made his decision.