Carlos Sainz says he's still struggling to come to grips with Ferrari's F1-75, admitting that he's having to "think outside the box" to improve his performance at the wheel of the "knife edge" car.
Sainz has been consistently outpaced by Scuderia teammate Charles Leclerc so far this season, and his efforts to raise his game have often resulted in mistakes and off-track excursions.
In Barcelona, Sainz qualified third, 0.416s behind Leclerc on pole. But the Spaniard lost out to George Russell and Sergio Perez at the start and then veered off course on lap 7.
The Ferrari driver was fortunately able to extract himself from the gravel trap and to clock in fourth at the checkered flag, but the Italian outfit's new-generation car remains a tough proposition for Sainz who described the contender as being "on a knife-edge in corner entry" all weekend.
"It’s giving me a whole new challenge in my Formula 1 career, and I’m having to think outside of the box, drive outside of the box, and with this comes mistakes, it comes learning things that I’m having to learn, and I’m putting my head down to try and fight this and make it turn as soon as possible," he explained.
"I think you can see from the cameras and everywhere that I’m not there yet with the car compared to last year, that I’m not driving naturally, the car is a bit too pointy for my liking but that’s it, that’s the way it goes.
"You can either adapt yourself or can either bring your car a bit more to your liking.
"Anyway, these two things, they take time, and they take knowledge and experience, it takes mistakes and trial and error, and this is what I’m in the process now and what I’m going to try and correct as soon as possible."
Sainz acknowledged that Leclerc's results at the wheel of Ferrari's F1-75 leave him with no excuses: he has to get on top of his issues and learn to master the Scuderia's thoroughbred.
"At the same time I have on my left a guy who is doing an excellent job like Charles is, with this car," Sainz said.
"He’s driving at a very high level, he’s putting together super impressive lap times, an impressive way of driving, and I can only admire and try and in some ways copy and in others try and put it a bit more in my liking to be faster.
"Sometimes it goes like this and as a driver you just need to go through a process and challenge yourself."
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