Sainz Reveals Aspect Related To Verstappen That 'Scares' Him 'Most Of All'

Saturday, 23 December 2023 at 17:00

Carlos Sainz opened up about one thing from the 2023 season that scares him the most of all after watching Max Verstappen.

Carlos Sainz is currently in the middle of his contract negotiations with the Scuderia Ferrari F1 team. But he will be with the team in 2024, no matter what.

The Spaniard is, therefore, already focused on the next season, but he adjusted his expectations, as he said on the pre-Christmas sponsor event on behalf of Estrella Galicia in Madrid:

"I believe Max has not needed to go 100 percent in all the races, and that is what scares me most of all."

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The Ferrari driver believes that Verstappen won 19 out of 22 races of the 2023 season without even pushing his car to the limit, which is something he and Charles Leclerc certainly had to do. He continued:

"That’s why I tell Ferrari that we do not need to improve four [tenths], but six. We have to see why in the race we are missing that little step."

Ferrari had caught up with the team from Milton Keynes mainly in terms of qualifying pace towards the end of the season when they were able to outqualify Red Bull on multiple occasions.

However, the race pace remained Red Bull's main advantage, and the triple World Champion would always find his way to the lead of the race eventually.

Ferrari must improve significantly if the team plans to challenge Red Bull for the title next year. But Sainz himself lately mentioned he believes it is possible.

On the other hand, as Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur mentioned, it is not by how much they can improve. It's always about the comparison to other teams.

Ferrari could improve by two seconds, but if Mercedes and Red Bull improved by even more, the Italian team would seem weak.