Carlos Sainz has lost the spotlight to Charles Leclerc for a few days, due to the latter’s contract extension. In spite of all the hype built around Leclerc, we should not forget that Sainz was the sole winner for Ferrari this season, as he was able to capitalize on the opportunities presented during the Singapore GP.
Obviously, Sainz has suffered alongside Charles Leclerc for the whole season with inconsistent race pace and numerous problems with this SF23. To add salt to his wounds, the Las Vegas GP cost him magnanimously as his crash during Free Practice made sure he would face numerous grid penalties during the race.
Sainz emphasizes key conditions for Ferrari’s success against Red Bull
Red Bull’s pace has been the distant dream almost every other manufacturer has been pursuing throughout the season in vain. Ferrari were among the closest competitors to the Bulls, as they were able to get the most poles among other manufacturers this season. Red Bull and Ferrari were in an intense fight during the last few races of the season, as Ferrari was able to secure front lockouts and even take the lead of the races many times, although their plans never came to fruition and Red Bull won all but one race this season.
Sainz has been the frontrunner for Ferrari this season, trying to overthrow the dominance of the Austrian outfit with his teammate Leclerc. The Spaniard knows the key challenges Ferrari had to face throughout the entire season and he has elaborated on them for the public. Carlos Sainz claims that these are objectives that the Maranello team would have to check in order to have any chance at beating Red Bull.
Carlos outlined the positives of his car, which he personally wanted to retain next year in order to develop for faster performance. “I would take definitely the straight-line speed and the braking performance and the performance in 90-degree, short duration corners. Also, the kerb riding I think is a very strong point. So, the car has very, very strong points.”
Carlos Sainz also talked about ‘realistic’ goals, which meant they may have to sacrifice some strengths to get better in specific races. “I feel like if we want to have a car for the whole year, maybe we need to give away some of these traits to make sure we’re quick everywhere, especially in the race.”
Steward admits unease over harsh penalty for F1’s Carlos Sainz
A grid place drop penalty for Carlos Sainz meant that he couldn’t capitalize on his 2nd place finish in qualifying and he wasn’t able to help teammate Charles from Max Verstappen’s onslaught of dominance. The entire F1 community was agitated about his penalties and after a long time, one of the stewards has accepted the unfairness of the situation.
“It’s a difficult job for a steward, the same as a referee, and we’ve got to be impartial,” F1 steward Warwick told the reporters. “We’ve got to be strict and we’ve got to be hard sometimes even when it hurts us. The penalty we had to give Sainz in Vegas, it felt wrong, it was wrong, we worked very hard for it not to happen but they’re the rules.”
Warwick’s words resonated with the opinions behind Carlos Sainz’s unfortunate accident and Fred Vasseur’s frustration. Do you think there was no way FIA couldn’t make an exception for Carlos’s situation? Tell us in the comments.
