Carlos Sainz Jr. is in trouble. This afternoon’s Sprint Race held in Baku, venue of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, already confirmed what was seen yesterday in the only free practice session carried out and in the qualifying sessions for the race held yesterday afternoon.
Sainz struggled for the first part of the Sprint Race with the Mercedes. He managed to keep behind that of an unrecognizable Lewis Hamilton, but never had a real opportunity to approach George Russell’s W14, fourth at the end.
Therefore, the Madrid-born Ferrari driver is currently in a limbo that forces him to limit the damage while trying to adapt his driving style to the SF-23 and thus exploiting – at least partially – its strong points.
“Yes, I limited the damage, exactly. For the moment, that’s the main thing after a very difficult, strange, mentally intense weekend. Driving a car that doesn’t give you confidence, on a track like this, makes every ride I do”.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19, battles with George Russell, Mercedes F1 W14, ahead of Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
“I’m making small progress making small changes to try and get closer to what Charles is doing [Leclerc], but it’s true that I can’t change anything on the car to make it better. I’m kind of stuck in this position.”
Since Ferrari decided to change its set-up philosophy, the SF-23 has returned to be very competitive on a flying lap. In the race, however, the usual problems resurface from track to track. The characteristics matter little, because the Reds are always too aggressive on the tyres.
“I think the set-up changes are paying off in qualifying. Charles is confirming in qualifying that the car has good potential over the flying lap. I didn’t feel good in the race today, I didn’t see great progress.”
“We were both going a little behind and Mercedes also had little degradation. At first I was going to take the DRS on them, but at the end of the race it went away. So it means we still have some work to do for the competition”.
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