Carlos Sainz, the driver who won the season's third race in Australia, suggested that this weekend will probably be very different as Red Bull is expected to have an advantage.
Coming into the 2024 Australia Grand Prix, there were doubts about Carlos Sainz's performance and whether he would actually participate in the Grand Prix.
However, with
the final result of that weekend, there are no more doubts about Sainz's performance ahead of the 2024
Japanese Grand Prix weekend. Asked about whether he believes he can maintain his level of performance this race weekend, Sainz said:
"We'll see. I think it's important like I've always said in the past, to turn the page quickly, in the good and in the bad."
"I think, obviously, coming from a good is more difficult to turn the page because you want to stay enjoying the moment, but I turned it in on Monday."
Coming from a very successful weekend to
Suzuka Circuit will be especially challenging for
Ferrari because the characteristics of this track didn't suit their car during the last two seasons. On the other hand, this track is almost like it was made for
Red Bull. Sainz continued:
"[I] started focusing my training and being back as fit as possible for Japan, also because it's going to be a challenging track for us."
"I think that last year was one of our most challenging ones in reference to a Red Bull – we were I think seven or eight tenths off, four or five months ago here."
Even though Red Bull comes to this track as the favorite and will most probably have some pace advantage over Ferrari, Sainz plans to enjoy the weekend at one of his favorite circuits on the calendar.
"So it’s time to see where we are this year and see if we can be at least closer and enjoy a bit more this amazing track than what we enjoyed last year, because for me it’s one of my favourite ones, if not my favourite."