Facial expressions say a lot. That of Carlos Sainz jr. seen at the end of a painful Mexican Grand Prix, he tells of a huge disappointment at having in his hands a Ferrari too bad to be true.
That car that had allowed him to shine in qualifying until the last round in Austin, this weekend inexplicably turned into a grumpy car in corners and too slow on the straight.
By Saturday it was already clear that the weekend would be complicated for the Maranello team. Sainz closed the qualification with the fifth time trial and a gap of half a second from Verstappen, while in the race the Spaniard always sailed in fifth position without ever having the opportunity to undermine the first four and then pass under the checkered flag with a delay. almost a minute from the two-time world champion.
What happened to Ferrari in Mexico? Sainz did not seek excuses, but explained how having raced at altitude, with thin air, has put the F1-75 in crisis.
“The car wasn’t bad to drive in the race. We didn’t have a big problem, but compared to the classic circuits here we suffered from the altitude ”declared the Madrid-born in the interview ring.
Carlos admitted that the team had to adopt a compromise structure to try to remedy the difficulties seen in the Free Practice.
“We are aware of the compromises we had to find for this track and the car was not competitive”.
“It was a shame because I felt comfortable with the car and I think I had a good race, but when you’re so slow you can’t do much.”
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari F1-75
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Already on Friday there were rumors of a probable penalty on the grid for the Spaniard who would have to replace the turbo. In reality, Ferrari preferred to postpone this decision to the next round in Brazil, but in doing so they had to run as fast as possible by removing power from their power units to avoid a retirement.
“The car was definitely not at full potential this weekend. We suffered a lot from the altitude. I don’t mean that on a traditional circuit we would have fought for the victory, but we certainly would have been more competitive “
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