F1 | Sainz: “Baku track suitable for Ferrari: we can do well”

Carlos Sainz is optimistic. The Spaniard, always very precise in his analyses, talks about the weekend in Azerbaijan and does not want to go further. The chances of having a good weekend in Baku according to Sainz are there. “I think it is a track on which our car should adapt well, even in the past we have been performing here. The last three poles were taken by Charles, we know that he is an expert on this track but also our car is suited to these low-speed 90-degree corners”.

“We had good feedback last year too, in Las Vegas as well as Singapore, tracks very similar to Baku. So, yes, we could have a good opportunity to win another race or to get on the podium. Then, if when we come back to Austin the car is like in Zandvoort, then we will have to review our objectives. But I think the right approach is to go race by race, when several teams are within one or two tenths it is really impossible to predict where you will be.”

Sainz also returned to Monza and to a race strategy that, analysed in hindsight, did not help him.
“I lost quite a bit of time by extending the first stint, but that was done because I was already on a one-stop strategy. He (Leclerc) was probably on a two-stopper, he pushed harder and then he was able to clean the grit off the tyre before me, and then it became clear that the race could be completed with a one-stopper. But in the end, it was still important to win the race with Charles, and I was able to help him by holding the McLarens back a bit.”

“Bringing home a win in Italy is an incredible thing for the team, there is happiness but also motivation, because it leaves you with something for the rest of the year. Obviously there are also precious points for the Constructors’ championship, today we don’t know how many chances we will have because, as I was saying, it will be crucial to see how the car will behave on the permanent circuits, but I think that in Baku, Singapore, Las Vegas and maybe also in Mexico, we should have a competitive car”.

The world championship possibilities that Ferrari still has firmly in hand, according to Carlos, are linked to the growth of the team…
“If we analyse the progress of the season, we had a good first third of the championship, then after Monaco we entered a more problematic phase. But precisely in this phase the team confirmed how much it has grown in terms of work, we managed to optimise to the maximum what we had available and this kept us in the fight”.

“We drivers have always been very consistent, we have helped each other and overall the whole team has always been very united. This has allowed us to have good management of the races even on difficult weekends. Now we are in the last third of the season, we will see if we can confirm the performances of Monza”.

Ferrari SF-24: here is the rear wing for Baku

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

One of the topics being discussed in the paddock on the eve of the weekend concerns the exploits of George Russell at Spa and Leclerc at Monza, both winners with just one pit stop at the end of a race that on the eve was strictly indicated with two pit stops. What is casting doubt on strategies that seemed consolidated?
“I think the main difficulty lies in the different types of asphalt that vary from track to track. For example, the way the tyre reacts in Bahrain has nothing to do with the way it reacts on a new surface like Spa or Monza. And in the end you have to remember that before the race we can’t do much more than about ten laps in FP2, when a race stint is on average thirty. So we all go in blind, and even Monza I’m not saying it was a question of luck, but we couldn’t know how the tyre would react, there was the risk that the performance would collapse on lap 20, 25 or 30.”

“We don’t do any testing, the few tests are in Bahrain which has very atypical conditions, so there’s always a bit of a gamble. We took a risk, we took a risk (the reference is to the Monza race) we had nothing to lose by making a stop, we knew we would have arrived third and fourth anyway but if we had stayed on track there would have been a chance to win in Monza. We made that attempt and we won. And maybe McLaren could have done the same with one of the two cars and covered us, but they didn’t…”.