Carlos Sainz believes Ferrari owes its third-place position in F1’s Constructors’ standings to the team's strong execution which has more than made up for the performance slump suffered by the Italian outfit in the middle part of the 2024 season.
While pundits project McLaren to overhaul Red Bull in the championship thanks to the Woking-based outfit’s dominant form, Ferrari’s 39-point deficit in the standings keeps the Scuderia in the running.
Given the challenges faced by Ferrari since Charles Leclerc’s banner home win in Monaco back in May, Sainz admitted to being surprised by Ferrari’s still advantageous position in the championship.
It’s taken the better part of the summer for the team’s engineers to iron out the bouncing issues encountered by the Scuderia on its SF-24 car since its Spanish Grand Prix upgrade.
But Sainz singled out the operational progress and race execution enjoyed by Ferrari this season, and which have in large part helped the team and its drivers extract the most from race weekends.
"Yes, I am surprised, because I don't know how many races there's been between Monaco and Monza, but it's one third of the season maybe," said the Spaniard.
"We had a strong first third, bad second third, and now we are entering the last third of the season. We've had a poor middle part of the season and we are still in the fight.
"It shows how far this team has come in terms of executing well, managing to score points even when the car is not performing like it did at the beginning of the season or like it did in Monza. And that's kept us in the fight.
©Ferrari
“I think the two drivers are also performing because I think we are both very consistent. We're always next to each other, we're always helping each other, we're always scoring points, the two of us maximising the car.
"I think we are doing a solid year all together and this has kept us with good race management by the team and good race execution with the team and drivers in the fight in a difficult season.
“Let's see if now we have that same performance as in Monza and Monaco and we can keep going for it."
Ferrari is expected to continue its run of form this weekend in Azerbaijan and next week at Singapore as both venues cater to the SF-24’s qualities.
But Sainz is cautious when it comes to predicting how the Scuderia will perform in the final leg of the season, starting in Austin at the end of October.
©Ferrari
"Yeah, it gives us a good run but at the same time it's maybe a fake one, because when you go back to Austin and the car is like it was in Zandvoort then you're lacking," he said.
"I'm going to go race by race and just see where it takes us. When we are within a tenth of each other, it's impossible to predict where you're going to be. You're going to be a tenth in front or a tenth behind.
"It's impossible to know. So go race by race, trying to maximise those tracks that potentially seem to be a bit better for you. Try to execute a good weekend. The weekends that are going to be tougher and [we will] see where we are at the end of the year."
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