Carlos Sainz Urges Ferrari To 'Understand' Why Car Struggles During Races
F1Wednesday, 01 November 2023 at 03:00
Carlos Sainz would like his team to understand why their car can perform well during the qualification, but not during the race.
Over the past few seasons, the Ferrari car has been known as a "qualification car" in the F1, as the Italian team managed to collect multiple pole positions, but they were not really successful in translating those into victories.
That was also the case at the 2023 Mexico City Grand Prix at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, where the Ferrari drivers finished first and second in the qualifying, with a lot of promise for the race.
Yet, only one of them managed to stand on the podium after the race, as Sainz's teammate Charles Leclerc finished third, while the Spanish driver placed fourth in Mexico City.
Currently, the team from Maranello is third in the World Constructors' Championship, only 22 points behind the second Mercedes. If Ferrari wants to finish second, they need to have a strong end of the season.
That's why Sainz, who talked to Sky Sports after the 2023 Mexico City Grand Prix, urged his team to understand why the car can perform well during the qualification but not so much during the races.
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"It’s clear in quali that we can fight for poles but then in the race. It’s pretty clear that they are a good step faster than us. We just need to understand why, what do we do to the car? What do we do to the balance in quali that makes it so good and then in the race it makes it so tricky?"
According to the Spanish driver, the team needs to keep analyzing what can be improved, and he hopes that the next year's car will be "a step forward in that direction."
"We need to keep analysing that and hopefully next year’s car will be a step forward in that direction, because it’s what we need in order to fight."
On top of that, Sainz also praised the race winner, Max Verstappen, and also second Lewis Hamilton, who were both "in a different league" according to the Spaniard.
"Today, Lewis was in a different league together with Verstappen. Third and fourth today for Ferrari was the maximum that we could achieve."
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