Carlos Sainz says that he faced a struggle to tame his Ferrari on the way to fifth place in the Formula 1 Chinese GP, admitting that at times “it was a bit wild and all over the place.”
Having survived a crash in qualifying the Spaniard started seventh, and lost a place to George Russell at the start.
Like team mate Charles Leclerc he eventually ran a one-stop strategy, but despite the safety car periods helping out it wasn’t easy for him to stretch out the life of his hard tyres. The red cars crossed the line in fourth and fifth, with the Monegasque driver ahead.
“It just hasn’t been a very good weekend for us as a team,” said Sainz when this writer asked him about the outcome.
“I think we were just not strong enough this weekend, P6/P7 in quali, and clearly also lacking a bit in the race, just with a clear lack of pace compared to the McLaren of [Lando] Norris.
“And in the end P4/P5 given how bad the start went for both cars and how early I had to pit for the hard to then one-stop from there, P5 is actually a good result, given the circumstances.”
Sainz admitted that the car wasn’t easy to drive at times.
“I particularly struggled with the front today,” he said. “In low-speed corners I was just understeering like crazy. We were having to run the kerbs a lot to turn the car, driving around in a very unnatural way in some places.
“When you look at the onboard it was a bit wild and all over the place, going on the sand and grass in some places. It was quite crazy how much we were struggling today.
“But when I saw the track map and I drove the car in the sim I kind of saw that this was going be a tough weekend for our car characteristics.”
Sainz’s Shanghai race included at one point a fraught battle with the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll.
“Honestly, I think everyone struggled a bit to overtake in general this weekend,” he said. “I think it’s starting to get to a point where these cars are tough to follow, tough to get in a position to overtake, and you have to do some of those dive bombs if you want to get it done.
“In that case, I overdid it a bit, but I was going to pass him the straight after anyway. So yeah, we were trying to recover honestly the places we lost at the start, which were a bit too many.”
Sainz says admits that the team needs to find some performance in the coming weeks.
“Clearly we need some upgrades if we want to be a bit more competitive in these sorts of long duration-type corners,” he said.
“I think here and Suzuka, we need something. In terms of maybe circuits like Australia, we’re better off. There are going to be circuits where the Red Bull is going to be clearly ahead anyway, and the McLaren is going to be stronger.
“There’s going to be other circuits like Australia where I think we’re going to be up there. So it’s very circuit dependent. But clearly, if we want to be stronger at circuits like China, we need a better platform for this kind of track.”
Asked if the package currently scheduled for Imola will make a difference he added: “I hope so, that’s the plan. Let’s see if it actually works like that, to try and make Red Bull’s life more complicated. If not, they’re walking off with many wins this season again.
“Miami, I have a better feeling than here. Not an Australia, but I think Miami should be a bit better for us.”
Adam Cooper F1 