Sainz understands Ferrari’s limits: 'Not very competitive around here'

Although Carlos Sainz started from P2 after a great qualifying session in his home Grand Prix, the Ferrari driver lacked the necessary race pace compared to the Red Bulls and the Mercedes leading to him finishing in fifth position.

In the press conference after the race where GPblog is present, Sainz, just like his teammate Leclerc, pointed out that it was hard for them to manage the tyres today.

“Honestly, I just spent the whole race managing tyres because we know we are very hard on them and with this high deg circuit I just couldn't push. We know it's the weakness of our car and coming to a high-deg circuit, a two-stop race, we were just managing the whole way, trying to make it to target laps of the stints and still falling short. A weakness of our car coming alive at a circuit like this with high-speed corners and how hard we are on tyres, it also shows that yesterday we must have done a pretty good lap. I think today was again a bit back to where the car is at the moment in race pace and probably this sort of track is not great for us.”

On the other hand, the Ferrari driver also pointed out that this result does not necessarily mean the team’s upgrades are not in the right direction. “I know the factory did a tremendous effort to bring them. Probably we brought them to our weakest track of the season because of the characteristics of the track so probably we haven't seen the best of them yet. I still believe with the bouncing and the high-speed weakness we have, we were never going to be very competitive around here so it's too early to tell but I think they did a tremendous effort to bring it. Heads up to all the factory, let's keep pushing and let's keep improving,” Sainz concluded.

'Work to do' for Sainz and the team

The Spaniard was also asked about Leclerc’s difficulties today, but he said overtaking was not difficult for him. “It didn't feel that difficult out there, at least for the others. For me it felt pretty easy but it just shows probably last year we would have made it back to the top four, top five now, starting from the pit lane. Just the field is tighter, and it's more difficult to make your way through. Work to do, analysis to be done on this package. I trust that they were heading in the right direction. Now we need to start addressing our weaknesses with the bouncing, with the high speed and at least with this new package, new direction, hopefully, we can start bringing performance,” he added following his home race.