Carlos Sainz admits that it's annoying to still be outside the top ten in the 2020 drivers championship standings despite a strong run of form so far this season.
Sainz had finished in the points in six of the 11 races, and memorably finished as runner-up in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. However pointless outings at Silverstone and back-to back retirements at Mugello and Sochi mean he's only amassed 51 points, putting him in 11th place in the standings.
“Well it’s annoying," he told the media, including Motorsportweek.com. “I find it particularly annoying as I think I should have at least 30 to 40 points more than what I have.
"You guys know how competitive I am and how I consider myself to be doing actually a decent year and a good year in F1," he continued.
“I feel I’m on top of my game, and somehow you look at the standings and I’m 11th in the championship," he lamented. "If it wasn’t for the Russia mistake I think I’m doing my best year in F1 to today and performing at a very high level.
"There’s a lot of things not going my way this year, it’s been a weird and very strange year for me," he said. “I’ve never had a chance to get the momentum and get consecutive results.
Sainz will leave McLaren at the end of the season to take over Sebastian Vettel's race seat at Ferrari. But the 26-year-old Spaniard promised he remained as determined as ever to deliver for his current team in the races they have left together.
"It’s not over yet. There’s six races left, I’ll try and finish in a strong note," he pledged. "I want to finish off on a high and score a lot of points.”
In particular he would love to catch Renault's Daniel Ricciardo, the man who will take is own spot at Woking next year and who is currently fourth in the standings, 27 points ahead of Sainz.
©McLaren
“I am a bit far away,” he admitted. "A normal race win, which for us when we are fighting for top sixes a race win is eight points. So you could argue I am three races behind my direct competitors, two or three ‘race wins’ away from them."
Sainz compared the situation to what it would mean between Mercedes team mates Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.
“If you would say it’s equivalent to Bottas being 50 to 75 points off Lewis," he explained. "Is he in the title fight? Will he be in the title fight being 50-75 points off? Maybe. But I have a very low, small chance."
Sainz next opportunity to make up ground on his rivals will be in the Portuguese Grand Prix at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimao this weekend.
“Portimão is definitely an unknown for me, as it is for many of the drivers and for F1," he said. " I like the challenge and I’m looking to get up to speed right from the start of the weekend.
"Last time out in Germany wasn’t our best weekend despite scoring a good result in P5. We’ve been working hard these past days with all the data gathered in the race and hopefully we can address the issues we faced coming into Portugal.
"Our rivals are performing on track and we still want to be in the battle to finish higher in the championship. There are six races to go and we’ll keep pushing until the very last one.”
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