Carlos Sainz says he doesn’t have any regrets about experimenting with his car’s set-up at Suzuka although the exercise ended up compromising his qualifying session.
After last week’s high at Singapore, the prospect of a difficult weekend on a track unsuited for Ferrari encouraged Sainz to explore less conventional solutions in a bid to find a good balance for his SF-23.
In the end, however, having lost his way, he opted to revert to a more basic set-up, but the process proved a distraction and a waste of time that eventually ended up setting him back rather than forward.
"We knew before coming here that this track would expose us a bit more," said the Spaniard who will line up sixth on Sunday’s grid.
"Probably with the high-speed characteristics, but also the long corners, high winds like we're having today, it was never going to be easy.
"I took the approach yesterday and this morning to try different things on the car, try to change the balance quite a bit, and try different things on set-up to try and put the car a bit in a different place.
"By the time of quali I saw that it was not quite working, and we had to go back to a more basic set-up, which in the end probably ended up compromising my quali preparation and my weekend in general.
"But I'm happy to try those things, and now focus on tomorrow, see if we can do a good race. I don't think we could have done much more because honestly the McLarens and the Red Bulls this weekend, they look one step quicker."
©Ferrari
Sainz recognized that his approach was a gamble, but one that is sometimes necessary to “challenge” the car and himself.
"Some weekends, where you know the car is weak, you need to challenge yourself, challenge the car a bit and try to put it outside its normal window to see if you can find something,” he argued.
“That's what I tried this weekend. It definitely didn't help, but I don't think it made my life too complicated.
“I also think Charles this weekend has been very quick and probably the unpredictability and the balance of the car being so tricky with the wind is not helping.
"Charles must have done a very good lap," he said. "I didn't get a clean sector one in my last lap, which probably accentuated a bit the difference. Let's say he's been a tenth or two quicker all weekend.
"And probably me being a bit distracted trying so many set-ups and never really getting into a rhythm didn't help. But it's an approach that I wanted to take to learn for the future circuits."
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