It’s hard not to meet him. Carlos Sainz (Madrid, 28 years old) more sincere when he talks about the best pizzeria in Monza. It is not so easy for an athlete to maintain tone and honesty when referring to all the things that have not gone well in the season which gave him his first victory as a Formula 1 driver. Sunday at Silverstone was a great day, for him and for Spanish motor racing, and there were other outstanding performances, such as the comebacks in France and Italy or the fury of Canada, after Verstappen . But not every day of 2022 has been positive for Sainz, uncomfortable from the start in the F1-75, and he elaborates on these circumstances in an interview with AS upon arrival in Singapore. He suffered at first, underscores the rage at missing out on opportunities with the best Ferrari of the season, and found himself afterwards in some commotion around the team, fundamentally media, to designate the first pilot. Carlos settled the debate with two pole positions, a victory and a haul of podiums. He now speaks as a team man, but also with the ambition of the driver who wants to “be champion”.
Are you happy with your season so far?
“In general, no. I can’t be happy, it’s been a season with too many ups and downs. There are things I’m happy with, like the progression. I was able to turn around a fairly complicated start and not get stuck, to be able to rediscover myself in a car that still doesn’t come naturally to me when driving, or not in the easiest way. With that I am proud, but the season had a difficult start and although I picked up pace and good results later, every two or three races something has happened that has not allowed me to generate a good run. I hope that in these six races that moment will come.
—It has had very low lows, like Australia; and high very high, like Silverstone. But he doesn’t seem to get carried away by emotions…
—I have been in Formula 1 for many years and I know more or less how this sport works. I have had very good years, bad beginnings, good endings, good beginnings, bad endings. I know that, more or less, in the end the important thing is the head. Being calm, trusting oneself, perhaps that is one of my strengths. The house can fall on me and I’m going to continue to be positive and try to continue having good results without it affecting me too much.
—Neither when he does it well is he the best, nor when he does it badly is he the worst.
Yes, that is my philosophy. I know that I have things to improve as a driver, but I also know that I am good, that I am capable of doing it in any race.
“I’m going to ask you about the team order discussion, but from another perspective. Didn’t you get tired of so much insistence, so many questions, also from the press, for Ferrari to have a first driver and a second driver?
—I can understand that after the first few races, Charles (Leclerc) he was clearly a step ahead in both qualifying and race pace. But in the middle of the season I improved a lot. Yeah, I started getting into the fight more and it was kind of frustrating in a way, because when I got into the fight it seemed like some people didn’t want me there. I was criticized for not being there, and when I started being there, some wondered what I was doing up front, letting Charles win everything. It was frustrating, especially from the press. They criticize me, but just when I was there, fighting, they don’t want me in front of me anymore. You saw that I do not pay much attention to what is said out there.
—Is it a virtue of Ferrari to have two strong drivers?
—I think so, also Mattia (binotto) and the team recognize that it is a virtue, that it is one of our strengths. But it is clear that there was part of the people who follow Ferrari who did not want, or does not want there to be two drivers. (at same level)perhaps it is a question for others because I am convinced that the best thing for the team is for the two of us to be as close as possible to each other.
“In your case, what else can you do to banish the squire debate?” Because since 2021 he is usually in the same tenth as Leclerc, up or down, in qualifying and in the race.
“Keep doing that. It is done.
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“The best thing for Ferrari is that the two drivers are close”
—How angry can a pilot get for a bad ‘pit-stop’? Because it is a very sensitive issue, the mechanics cannot make much more of an effort either…
“It’s a very sensitive subject. It seems to me that there is a lot of criticism towards the mechanics when they are the first ones who want the result to be the best possible for the team. They love Ferrari to the fullest, equal to or more than the driver himself, they are super linked to Ferrari and live this passion more than any tifosi and any journalist, but they are criticized a lot. Especially after Zandvoort, a lot of people still ask me how it was possible that a mechanic wasn’t ready, but that happens because they haven’t called him in time to be ready. A mechanic will always be there, it can be explained once again that Zandvoort’s mistake was not the mechanics, but the late call.
—The car and engine are upgraded at the factory. The assembly of the team, the strategies or the stops, where are they improved?
—With trial and error, as we are doing this year. Making mistakes, learning, making sure it doesn’t happen again. The key to a team is not how many mistakes are made but whether the same mistake is made twice. And so far I have not seen Ferrari make the same mistake twice. They have all been different examples, strategy errors or ‘pit-stops’, but they have never been repeated. It’s costing us in the championship, but I’ll be calm when the opportunity to win a championship comes and we don’t make those mistakes.
—Does it make you angry that you didn’t know how to get the most out of the Ferrari when the Ferrari was at its best this season, at the beginning?
-A lot. Of course. It frustrates me, because it is not a problem that I had, I am a driver who has always adapted very quickly to the cars in which I have competed. I have always been very close to my teammates or ahead. That just the year that I have had to suffer the most is the year in which I have a competitive car, in those first races, you can imagine that it was very difficult to accept psychologically. And to work on it, because he couldn’t explain it to me. If I’ve never had problems adapting and I’ve always been fast, why do I have trouble when I just have a fast car that allows me to fight for victories? I was very frustrated, I was worried, and I worked a lot on it. Even so, I did not lose my head and I have been able to solve it.
—Verstappen’s superiority in this second third of the year, is it the car or the driver?
—It’s the car, it’s the driver, it’s the team. It is the strategy, the ‘pit-stops’. No one fails, they have gone five or six races without making a mistake, doing things perfectly. And on top of that when Max fails and spins, like in Barcelona and Hungary, they are able to solve it quickly. Therein lies the difference as to why they are dominating.
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“I had never had problems adapting to a car, I couldn’t explain it to myself”
—How important is the goal of winning another race before the end of the year?
—It is my main objective in the six remaining races. I know it’s complicated, because Mercedes is already there, Red Bull is not failing, Max is at a very high level. But I go to every race trying to win it, then we’ll see if it succeeds or not.
—How much do you remember, how much remains of the Silverstone victory? Because F1 is going at a frenetic pace, it seems that several years have passed since that.
“Pretty little, really.” Every time I think about it I smile, but in F1 only the last race counts in terms of reputation and the next one in terms of occupation. I am proud to be the second Spaniard to have achieved a victory in Formula 1, in addition to doing it for Ferrari and at Silverstone, and in the way it was done. But I just wish it would happen again as soon as possible.
“Don’t you think, when you sit on the sofa, that you have achieved what you have worked for twenty years of your life?”
—Once you get it, and while you’re involved in the frenetic F1 season with all the races, it normalizes. It’s funny, because maybe in winter I’ll have more time to think about it and I’ll feel it differently. But right now… as every race is an opportunity to win, I am no longer worried about what happened at Silverstone. Yeah, when I’m older and not as competitive as I am now, and more in ‘thinking mode’, I’m sure I’ll see it that way.
—You are dangerously close to 30 years old, do you see yourself in your maturity as a pilot?
-I must be at a point close to that maturity, although then you see pilots like Fernando (Alonso), who reinvent themselves year after year, and I believe that maturity as such never ends. Every year you spend in F1 you will be better, you learn more. Yes, the eight years of experience help, but I will continue to learn new things.
—From that maturity, how far can you go?
My goal is to be world champion one day. I hope that if next year there is a good car again, I can be in the fight from the start. Not letting myself down in that first half because I know that once I’m in the fight, I’m able to stay in it. That will be the objective, we work at Ferrari to have that car again and improve as a team, so that if the opportunity arises again, next year, we will not let it slip away.