The last three races, with two zeros and a fifth place, have moved Carlos Sainz away from the top-4 in the World Championship standings, Russell and Hamilton are now ahead. The objective of the Madrid native and Ferrari for the end of the year does not change, it is to fight for pole positions (he has three in 2022) and victories (he won at Silverstone), and with good results he should approach the two Mercedes in the championship.
“It has been a difficult year. The first third of the season was complicated, I was struggling with the car and the driving because the car for some reason didn’t suit me from the start. The other two-thirds I had more pace, but there were a lot of DNFs and a lot of problems. It seems that Red Bull and Mercedes had a better second half of the season, and although now I have a good weekend like in Mexico, the maximum is a fifth place. I am proud of the progress we have made together with the engineers, but I hope that next year the consistent Carlos from 2021 will return with good results”, said Sainz at Interlagos, where this weekend there is a sprint format grand prix for Saturday.
“It is the year in which I have learned the most since 2015, which was my first season in F1. He had never had so many complications as in 2022, always out of rhythm in the first six races. I had to fight a lot to change things about my driving, the car, and reset my way of driving. It took a long time, but I feel like I’ve made a big step forward as a driver. I have learned a lot and I am proud, the easy thing was to give up and wait to see if I am more competitive in next year’s car. I’m still making progress and I’m optimistic for next year,” he explained.
On the fight against Verstappen: “This year it has not been possible, I am very far away in the championship. His performances, along with Red Bull, confirm that they have been the fastest car with the fastest driver. With a perfect year it is possible (fight against Max), but you have to do it perfectly and I have to improve in the first part of the season and in the races. That is the goal, we will see what happens next year.” Can Red Bull be caught up in winter? “There are chances. Red Bull have dominated, but they haven’t been clearly ahead in qualifying or race pace. I don’t feel we are that far apart in terms of development and performance of the car. In Austin I was on pole so our car shouldn’t be that far away. It is clear that Red Bull is very quick in the race compared to us, and another step that needs to be taken is the strategy and execution of the races. In terms of pure performance, we are not far away”.
Carlos’ fifth place in Mexico two weeks ago was positive individually, but not from the team’s perspective due to the Ferrari’s lack of performance. “Mexico must be an exceptional event, we have never been so far away in pace. It doesn’t matter if it was the engine, the set-up, the tyres, because it’s clear that something was wrong. We focus on Brazil and Abu Dhabi, we want to get back on track and fight for the podium again against Red Bull and Mercedes, it’s an interesting fight. We want clean weekends to prepare for next year”, says the Spaniard in this regard.