Sainz sees Russell and Verstappen hit each other: 'Contact you keep having'

Carlos Sainz is having a difficult weekend in Baku. The Ferrari driver has been pretty much slower than Charles Leclerc in all sessions, and he, therefore, lacks confidence in the SF23. The Spaniard tells GPblog and others that he finds it difficult to say where it lies. He also addresses the incident between George Russell and Max Verstappen, which happened right in front of him.

"I clearly don't feel comfortable or confident. If I would, then I would just be lacking three-tenths of a second per lap, but I clearly don't have the confidence. I'm going to need more time after this weekend to really go deeper into the data because now, with this format, you just simply don't have time.," Sainz said after the sprint race in Azerbaijan. He finished fifth on Saturday afternoon.

Heading into Sunday, there is little possibility for Sainz to adjust things to the car. "It's not possible to change anything that will make me feel better, so I'm a bit stuck. But as I said, it gets to a point where you just need to accept it. It's one weekend in my life that I feeling this strange situation, and at this point, it's more, as I said, a damage limitation."

On the touché between Verstappen's RB19 and Russell's W14, Sainz says:"You have dirty air, lap one, zero grip on the tires. There's always going to be contact like this. I had my problems in Australia. It was George and Max's turn here. We're fighting hard. We're trying the best we can to keep the car under control, but when you are at the limit with these cars, it's very difficult"