Sainz: Ferrari car still too dependent on 'wind and track conditions'

Carlos Sainz says Ferrari's performance is still too dependent on the wind and track conditions, a well-known weakness that the team needs to iron out as it is leaving the Scuderia "exposed" at certain venues.

Sainz and teammate Charles Leclerc were running among the top six in the first part of the British Grand Prix. But hampered by their car's lack of pace the pair eventually regressed to finish respectively P9 and P8.

Sainz said his struggles were rooted mainly in the SF-23's lack of traction, which the hard tyre used in his second stint only made worse.

"Very windy, very tricky car to drive again, very difficult to be consistent in these conditions… We were certainly struggling a lot on traction in all the tailwind," the Spaniard explained.

"We couldn't get on the power and also a harder tyre made the fighting and everything very tricky.

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"We know it's our weakness, we know where it is. We see it in the wind tunnel, we see it in our car, we see it on the driving, on the feeling. So, it's just a matter of developing.

"At least we've done some progress still. But again, Silverstone has put us back in a position where we know we need to improve the car."

Sainz fears that Ferrari's main weakness will continue to leave the Italian outfit "exposed" on certain tracks, even despite the team's recent upgrades which aimed to reduce the SF-23's lack of consistency.

"It's not a great thing for us because we are very dependent on the wind and the track conditions and on the track temperature for our own performance, which will leave us a bit exposed to some weekends," he said.

"Clearly the tyre [degradation], the tyre energies, the wind sensitivities, the unpredictability of the car, one lap I was 0.3s or 0.4s quicker than others just because of a gust of wind, so we still need to focus on that."

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