Carlos Sainz pushed hard to salvage the Dutch Grand Prix for Ferrari as the weekend proved tougher than expected at Zandvoort. From the very first day, the Spaniard faced hurdles: he handed his seat in Free Practice 1 to Robert Shwartzman from the Ferrari Driver Academy, while the car remained a handful on high-load tracks like the Dutch circuit. Despite struggling with balance and grip, Sainz crossed the line in third, fending off a late charge from a red-hot challenger and clinging to fifth place under pressure. The result left him hungry for improvements and already eyeing the next challenge on the calendar.
The race weekend tested the team in several ways. The car was hard to drive, especially on a track that demands high-speed precision and quick adaptation to the surface and weather conditions typical of Zandvoort. Sainz showed tenacity by staying in the fight from start to finish, but the overall pace did not reflect the potential the team hoped to unlock. Even with a solid strategic call that helped secure fifth, the driver signaled that more work was needed to rebalance the set-up and extract performance in race conditions.
“The race was very tough; we were constantly chasing a car that felt quicker than ours,” Sainz reflected after the finish. “We stayed clean, we didn’t make mistakes, and the strategy finally helped us stay in contention for a top-five finish. But there isn’t much to celebrate with the pace we had this weekend.”
Looking ahead, Sainz expressed cautious optimism about bouncing back in Monza. “Hopefully we’ll be strong again at Monza next week. It was a weekend meant to minimize damage. The car had trouble in both qualifying and the race, and we must learn from that experience. Why were rivals from Alpine and McLaren so fast? That question should drive our development,” he noted. The expectation is for Ferrari to return to its usual competitive form at a track that suits their strengths and provides an opportunity to make up ground in the standings.
In the closing stages, Sainz faced a particularly challenging stretch as the tires reached their limit and pressure from competitors intensified. He explained that a problematic portion of the setup limited his ability to push for the podium in the final laps, especially when the car needed to rely on grip that didn’t fully materialize on the long Dutch straightaways. A decision to use previously qualifying tires, which had been worn and less capable, did not yield the hoped-for benefit, leaving the driver with a slower pace as the race concluded. The balance issues were clear, and the team focused on extracting every possible performance from the remaining laps rather than risking tire failures.
The Spaniard moved to fifth in the Drivers’ World Championship in the wake of the weekend, a result that underscores stability in a season where consistency often matters more than a single spectacular performance. Yet with his teammate Leclerc stepping back from the action mid-eventual, Sainz recognized that the day’s disappointment lay more in the car’s pace than in any personal shortfall. He remained resolute that the team would regroup and target a stronger showing at the next event, reinforcing the belief that a more favorable balance is within reach as Ferrari irons out the remaining rough edges ahead of the long-haul portion of the calendar.