Formula 1: In the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Ferrari lacked a bit of performance. There is no doubt about how well the team performed in the Bahrain season opener. Carlos Sainz was behind Red Bull’s Sergio Perez in Jeddah, to take sixth place. The other main driver of Ferrari, Charles Leclerc, was recovering from a 10th-position grid penalty. Follow Formula 1 LIVE Updates with InsideSport.IN.
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The Spaniard realises that their team is not the second fastest. He detects a lack of race pace and isn’t happy with his performance. In spite of starting the race in the second row, Sainz was way too behind than he had expected. In an interview, Carlos mentioned how he and his teammate, Leclerc got the most out of the car. However, he expects himself to be more competitive in the further races.
“ I expect to be more competitive in the race and fight Aston Martin and Mercedes,” said Carlos.
Carlos spoke about how he was struggling in the main sector and had a strange feeling about the tyres and the car. He stated “ I just couldn’t put that sector one where I wanted. It meant I lost a lot of confidence in Q2 having to use another set of tyres and leaving myself exposed for Q3, which wasn’t ideal. ”
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🇸🇦 Domingo difícil, esperábamos tener mejor ritmo en carrera. Hay trabajo por delante, sabemos que ahora el coche no está donde queremos. Pero seguiremos empujando y tengo total confianza en que podemos mejorar la situación.
–#CarlosSainz pic.twitter.com/NICkNbeVys
— Carlos Sainz (@Carlossainz55) March 19, 2023
The SF-23 duo’s inability to advance on hard tyres during the final stint in Saudi Arabia has now removed all doubt from Sainz that the car has a more fundamental pace deficit than the team had previously suggested. The team had previously attributed the extreme degradation to the punishing Bahrain circuit. Carlos accepts that right they are not where they should be in terms of race pace.
“We need clean air to produce some kind of decent lap times. We know exactly our weaknesses. This is a positive. Now, obviously, we cannot do magic to bring the developments early. “ stated Carlos.
