#Relief
It’s not the happiest weekend, for Carlos Sainz, who at no time has seen the podium on the horizon and has been surpassed by his teammate Charles Leclerc for the first time in 2024, at least when both were on the track. The Spanish pilot has assured that “Being fifth” was “the most” I could aspire to this Sunday in the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix race, as they have not been “very fast” this weekend. Besides, Now Ferrari will have to check if it was “a configuration problem” or the matter goes further.
“It’s been a bit of a crazy race. At the start, what we did between the two cars in turn 1-2 cost both Charles and me two positions. We have lost position to a Mercedes and a Haas, which has cost us a lot in the race. Then we tried to follow the Mercedes, we tried to pass it, it stopped, and we stopped later. We put the hard on very early, and then I had to do a very long stint on the hard,” he explained in statements to DAZN.
Even so, he positively valued the effort to withstand hard tires that were on the verge of their limits: “We managed to hold on for fifth, so given the circumstances I think today is the most we could do”. “We haven’t gone very fast this weekend, When you qualify sixth and seventh it means that there is not much rhythm in the car. In the race we expected to do better. We have to check if we have done everything we could do with the set-up, and if not, work on the car,” he noted.
On the other hand, the Madrid native analyzed the tire strategy. “I was going to go to two stops, what happens is that the Safety Car has lasted so long that It has forced us to go to one. “I was on a very old wheel the entire race and that’s why I focused on getting to the end, on trying to ensure that Russell, with a new wheel behind me, didn’t pass me, and we managed to do it,” he said.
“You have to keep in mind that I have skipped a race and even so, I have been in the top five of all the races. We are starting well, but perhaps China has been the most difficult circuit for both me and the Ferrari until now“, he concluded to highlight his year, which today in China was stained with the first private defeat against Charles Leclerc.
