The past is the disagreement with last weekend in Barcelona with Leclerc, the present is a single-seater that arrives in Spielberg with several questions, the future is the negotiations he is carrying out with Williams, Alpine and Audi.
Carlos Sainz took stock of all fronts, starting with the ‘Barcelona’ case. “If there had been a team order I would have been the first to respect it – Carlos began – you saw in the race that when they asked me to give way to Charles I did so, I always respected every single order that was given to me and if I made a maneuver (overtaking Leclerc on the second lap of the race) it was because there was no precise indication to maintain the position. However, we can sit down and discuss whether it was the right move at the time, but other than that I won’t comment on anything further.”
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Ferrari
For Sainz, Ferrari is benefiting from being able to count on two drivers who are always very close in terms of performance. “In other teams it’s not like that,” Carlos underlined. “It’s obvious that Charles and I find ourselves sharing the same piece of asphalt very often and this has been happening for three and a half seasons. I think our relationship has always been, and still is, one of mutual respect.”
The message is clear, there is nothing between the two Scuderia drivers that goes beyond what can be defined as ordinary administration, at least for now.
Then Carlos analyzed the problems of the SF-24, underlining how for him the combined long curves are a very important weakness of the project.
“In my case I think the high speed remains a weak point of the car,” Sainz continued, “because I’m not a big fan of the bounce that we have in that particular situation. Bouncing is not good for the tyres, so even if it may not have much impact in the high speed corners in terms of performance, I don’t like the effect that bouncing has on the tyres, I still think that this is a weak point that needs to be addressed as we are in the third season with this technical regulation and we are still struggling with this little bounce”.
Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, Scuderia Ferrari
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Sainz did not want to add many details, but made it clear that in the fast sections the bouncing causes the tires to overheat which then affects the performance in the subsequent corners.
“It’s just my idea, but that’s how I see it.” Carlos also has clear ideas about what didn’t work in Barcelona and his analysis seems to be a little against the grain of the team’s line.
“I don’t think it was a setup problem as it’s been the same since the start of the season, basically we’re driving the car in a very similar way. Since the beginning of the championship we have only improved it by adding more downforce, but our rivals also update their cars, so it is certainly not us who are taking a step backwards as much as our rivals who are doing an excellent job.”
Future topic. Usually negotiations progress by reducing the number of options, while in the case of Sainz, in what appeared to be a Williams-Audi dispute, Alpine was also added.
“My work group and I have forced ourselves not to be influenced by the performances that alternate race after race. The objective is to focus only on the project, on the sensations that come from talking to each team and, obviously, reading the contractual proposals. It’s not easy because the competitive spirit pushes you to see who is faster, but I don’t think that each team’s last race is a representative point of where those teams will be in the next two seasons.”
In closing, Carlos launched a dig against the Formula 1 system, or rather, against many representatives of the teams who, in his opinion, do not keep and respect their word.
“The situation I found myself in this year made me learn a lot about Formula 1. Talking to many teams I understood how tough this sport is, how little you have to believe what they tell you at the beginning of the negotiations. I also understood that you can trust very few people in the paddock because it’s really a very political, very tough sport, but I don’t want to go into too much detail. Apart from that, I have studied a lot about the teams I could move to next year.”
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