Sainz looks askance at fifth place in the World Cup standings, to which he still aspires. Leclerc has 158 points, Norris has 154 and the Madrid player, 149.5. “Now I am more of an ‘outsider’ than a clear candidate, because I need to finish fifth, that I could have done it in Jeddah with a good classification, and that the others fail. But the fact that I am in the fight with Lando and Charles in my first year with Ferrari, when they have been with their car for three years, it is already good news. It is a good year and if I finish it off, it would already be a very, very good year, “he said in Yas Marina.
Regarding the fight for the title, he admits that he has a candidate but prefers not to say so in public because the polarization in social networks, which reaches the ‘paddock’, is intense: “I’m not going to get wet, if you’re not a teammate It is very difficult to know if he is far above or not, I understand what Fernando is saying, I know that Max is terrific and I also know that he is not unbeatable. I choose one, it is impossible to be fifty percent on these things And you always have a preference, or a sense of who will win. But I see social networks so tense, so many sides, and I read things with so little meaning that I don’t feel like getting into the ointment “.
“May the best man win, may he represent the sport well by making a clean and sporty battle. And may F1 enjoy an exciting ending that has not been seen in decades. In a year you can make mistakes, judging a fight, but if the last race is clean, the champion will be fair. “ As for the circuit: “Easier to overtake, sure, because more difficult is impossible. The changes are made in the right direction. Ferrari will fare a little worse than on the previous circuit, more twisty, more like Ferrari likes” .