MADRID, 29 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish driver Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) admitted “not” having understood “where the improvement” experienced this Saturday in his car comes from, as a result of his second place in the classification of the Mexican Grand Prix, the twentieth qualifying event for the Championship. World of Formula 1, and where the ‘pole position’ went to his teammate, the Monegasque Charles Leclerc.
“It was a very strange, very strange session. I haven’t done a good lap all weekend… and the first one I did well was in the first round of Q3. I was first at that moment and then Charles beat me by half a tenth,” commented Sainz from the paddock of the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, in Mexico City.
“I don’t understand where the improvement comes from or how we were half a second slower in the second run. [en Q3]. It was difficult with the tyres, but we managed to put in a good lap when it counted and that puts us in a good position for tomorrow,” predicted the Madrid driver.
Despite Ferrari’s good positions, Sainz was honest. “We don’t have as much speed with the high fuel load as with the low one, obviously we benefit from that peak of the soft tire. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow to keep the tires alive and keep Red Bull behind because with two cars ahead It is an advantage, so we will do our best,” he said.
Later, at a press conference, the man from Madrid expanded his argument. “It has been a complicated weekend. It was difficult for me with the soft tire. Until the first run of Q3 I had not done a single good lap all weekend. And although I had whiplash in turn 8-9 , where I almost lost the car, it was a pretty good lap,” he said.
“But when I saw 1:17.2 on the steering wheel, I thought: ‘Where does this come from?’. That shows that there is something that we still have to understand and that we have to analyze. Because our car with soft tires, with high grip “in Q3 and little fuel, it’s like it comes back to life. And when we have more worn tires like in Q2, it’s a more complicated car. Sometimes it surprises us positively and other times not so much. So we’ll have to work on it,” he insisted.
In addition, he compared the 2023 GP with that of last season. “I think last year we went to a single stop with a C4 and a C3, and tomorrow we have the same tires available. So the perspective doesn’t change much, although I do feel that this year the tires are more complicated to manage,” he lamented. during the press conference.
“We already saw how in free practice 2 and 3 there was more ‘graining’, so the race is going to be more complicated than it was last year. It will depend on the management of the tire temperature and the engine temperature as well, and see how we can be more consistent without making mistakes,” said Sainz.
After being questioned about his chances of reaching the podium or even winning, Sainz was honest. “I don’t know, it’s impossible to predict in Mexico. If we do laps like today, we can aim for the podium or victory. But doing that for 71 laps with our car is a little more complicated, just like with our race management. tires,” he noted.
“Red Bull makes the difference there, but together with Charles Leclerc we will try to do everything possible to keep him behind and try to fight for that victory,” added Sainz, who then completed his speech before the DAZN microphones.
“It was a pretty good lap, improving a lot on what we had been doing all weekend. But the truth is that my second lap of Q3 was even better, but we don’t know exactly why. Sometimes we go fast, sometimes slow … It’s a slightly strange situation this weekend with the tires, with the ‘out laps’, which we don’t quite understand,” he stressed.
“The track improved especially for us. For Max [Verstappen] it improved two tenths, for us it improved eight tenths and one second; which explains to you that our car has something that we don’t quite understand,” he continued in the interview with DAZN after Q3.
“Suddenly we managed to put it in a very good work window and it surprised us positively, and other times it surprised us negatively. So we have to keep improving, keep understanding it because things like today happen, which are sometimes difficult to understand,” Sainz concluded.