There are six races left in a season in which Max Verstappen and Red Bull are overwhelmingly dominant. The only driver who can break this trend for now Carlos SainzHE He won his first victory of the year and second in F1 in Singapore.. At an event organized by his sponsor, the Madrid driver reflected on what he had achieved so far after nine years in the World Championship and especially after coming to Ferrari three years ago. Sainz said he felt valued by his bosses, insisted the Scuderia was his priority, denied there was a hierarchy of numbers one and two in the team with Charles Leclerc, and assured that a renewal would most likely happen this winter. . “Once the World Cup is over, there will be almost four months to sit down and negotiate.”he stated.
Evaluating the rest of the season, Sainz said, “Our maximum goal, our main motivation, is to be second among the teams. We lost a lot of points from Mercedes in the last races and we believe that this will be the case.” possible.And On a personal level, continue as before.“We’re trying to get the most out of the car and if another opportunity comes up to get on the podium try to take advantage of it, but it’s hard to know if there can be more with this car.”
Carlos noticed this SF-23 isn’t exactly your dream car: “I prepared in the pre-season with the aim of competing for the championship, but after the first test we saw that this was almost impossible. I was not comfortable in last year’s car, nor in this car. Thanks to my experiences, I was able to understand this better and know what I could do to adapt. As the months passed, these bore fruit, but “It is not enough to stop Red Bull, which has a huge advantage over all of us,” he stressed.
“I’ve seen the team work hard this year to turn things around. improve the car a little during the year after a bad surprise First. And the truth is, it’s more Red Bull that makes the difference for me. “If Red Bull wasn’t there, Ferrari would be having a pretty good year and we’d be talking about one of the most balanced and entertaining years in F1, with Aston Martin, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes at a very similar level.” he emphasized.
“Current cars are difficult to drive, so we see a difference of two or three tenths or even more between our colleagues driving the same car. That doesn’t happen at Ferrari because Charles and I are always close and that’s an important asset for Ferrari.Added Sainz, who thinks the bad relationship with Leclerc or the alleged favoritism towards the Monegasque at Maranello is “a matter for the press”.
“Vasseur is a very good boss and a great strategist. We already knew about his previous relationship with Charles but I also got along well with him, one thing does not overshadow the other. There was no favoritism this year and I have always perceived it that way, otherwise Otherwise I would have told Fred, I would have no problem telling him about it. The press thinks that Leclerc and I are always fighting, but that is not the case, we have no problems. Our respective contracts ensure this. It is clear that the priority is the team, it is Ferrari and we assume that, the team is There are no numbers one and two, and it has always been that way,” emphasized Carlos Sainz.
Sainz, who has a contract for 2024, is still waiting for a renewal, but the Madrid player is in no rush: “Decision will be made in winterOr it will try to be so. You already know my intentions in the short, medium and long term. Now, with the World Cup going on and so much travelling, there’s no time to sit around and it’s not a priority. “Then we have a four-month winter break to negotiate calmly,” said Sainz, who did not believe that Singapore’s victory would have a particular impact on reaching an agreement. “If you are going through a good period, it is always easier to reach an agreement,” he said. However, this result “I don’t think Ferrari will change their mentality towards me,” he said.
In any case, Sainz feeling worthless drivers he has known as teammates for a long time Max Verstappen and more recently Lando Norrishe is now considered the two biggest young talents on the grid: “I don’t know what people’s general opinion is of me, but I feel valued by those I care about, F1, people in the teams and other drivers… if that wasn’t valued I wouldn’t be at Ferrari,” he insisted .
Regarding Verstappen, who is now almost invincible and went straight to his third championship, Sainz said: “It would be very naive to think that he won only because of the car. Max took advantage of having a very competitive car and was successful.” it doesn’t make mistakes, but it also does because it has so much margin. In Singapore there were errors in strategy or setup. But when you have that much margin, the probability of failure is greatly reduced,” he argued.
Sainz announces Ferrari taking race in Japan your last update “And from now on all the teams, including us, are focused on next season’s car, which is already in the wind tunnel.” The new car was born out of high expectations and a struggle to close the gap on Red Bull, which “seems to be two years ahead of us all”: “For the last two years, Ferrari has been the team to challenge Red Bull as much as possible. And what we need to do, this year’s We know very well the areas that do and do not work on the vehicle.Another thing is that then we can put everything into practice in the car“But if there is one team that has shown the ability to react, it is Ferrari.”
Carlos does not think the dominance of Red Bull and Verstappen is a burden for F1: “It is still a great sport, with races that are unpredictable due to weather conditions and other factors. There have always been times in history when some teams have the upper hand. In recent years “It’s only been in 2007, 2008 or so. “There was a fight to the end for the championship in the 2021 seasons, but even in times of boring fights, F1 always managed to survive,” he underlines.
Of the six remaining tests, Sainz thinks “the biggest unknown is Las Vegas and figuring out what kind of circuit it will be. It looks like it’s urban, Monza type, with a lot of flat tracks. Because of the unknown, hopefully we can achieve that.” We have a chance there. Other periods, compared to last year… We suffer in Mexico, We need to do a little better in Austin And It will be difficult in Qatar“.