Carlos Sainz, second in the World Cup eight points behind Charles Leclerc, spoke to the international media this Thursday at Jeddah Corniche and then answered questions from AS. The Ferrari F1-75 seems to be the favorite on a high-speed track, where the power unit will limit the capabilities of each team. The atmosphere in the garage is fantastic after a double, but we must confirm the very good feeling at the Saudi Arabian GP.
—New cars, very fast circuit, a lot of wind… what do you expect this weekend?
—Surely the wind affects and the track is one of the most difficult on the calendar, it will give us the occasional headache. But it is a weekend to focus on adapting the car to my style, taking small steps forward in terms of driving and, whatever has to come, let it come.
—What are you missing at the wheel to reach the pace of Leclerc last weekend?
—In Bahrain I was there in the fight for pole position, in qualifying, and it was good news for me because I lacked sensations and I needed to fully understand the car. The two good laps on Saturday are almost worth a pole. But it is a fact that I have to work on the ‘set-up’ and the behavior of the car, I have done the analyzes with my team and we have a couple of interesting theories and things to try. I don’t think it will be a race thing, but like last year, little by little, I hope to get there. We need more examples, perhaps Bahrain was an isolated event and here I am again as I think I should be.
“Can you specify a bit more?”
“It’s too specific to explain to the media. ‘Feeling’ with the car, knowing exactly what to do in each type of curve to get the most out of it, and then adjust the ‘set-up’ a little more to my liking so that I ride a little more comfortably, just like I did in the second half of last year. And that must be done as soon as possible. There are things that I don’t even understand, it’s not worth going into detail (in public)but do it myself. If I managed to finish second with the car from Bahrain, I’m sure good times will come.
—A good circuit to take advantage of the potential of this Ferrari engine, isn’t it?
“It’s not superior, but it’s a good engine.” Red Bull had more top speed than us and nobody talks about the Honda engine. It seems that the Ferrari engine is top, but Red Bull was five kilometers per hour ahead of us. You have to talk about others, not just Ferrari. Reliability? There we can be a little calmer. Everything is very even, even Mercedes has admitted that they had more wings than the others and that is why they were slower on the straights. Engines freeze this year and I think we’ve reached a point where the engines are very even.