Carlos Sainz admits that his last two races have been “wasted opportunities” to capitalize on his Ferrari team’s competitiveness.
The Spaniard made the most of the Scuderia’s relatively low-key summer during which the Italian Outfit struggled to get on top of the high-speed bouncing issue that impacted the performance of its SF-24.
However, Ferrari’s recent improvements have especially benefitted Sainz’s teammate Charles Leclerc, who delivered an emotional win at Monza - where Sainz finished fourth - and who topped qualifying in Baku.
Since the end of F1’s summer break, Leclerc has put 68 points on the board compared to Sainz’s tally of just 28.
In Azerbaijan, the future Williams driver missed a chance of seizing a podium when he clashed with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez on the penultimate lap of the race.
And in Singapore, last time out, Sainz significantly undermined his chances of bringing home a good result when a crash in the final segment of qualifying left him a P10 on the grid on raceday.
But the 30-year-old didn’t shy away from self-reflection as he assessed his string of underwhelming performances.
“Yeah, I think in general, the last couple of races have been a bit of a wasted opportunity,” he told the media at marina Bay.
“I’m not happy with how things have gone on these last two weekends.”
©Ferrari
Despite the frustrations, Sainz remains hopeful about the races ahead, particularly with Ferrari showing renewed competitiveness after mitigating its car’s bouncing issues.
“At the same time, you never know what there is around the corner,” he continued. “And we might be surprised with how we can perform in Austin, Mexico, Vegas and these tracks.
“So I’m gonna keep myself optimistic. Six races left in this long year, I’m gonna work on my weaknesses and put myself in a better position for the last six races.”
One of those areas of focus is qualifying performance, an aspect where Sainz has struggled relative to Leclerc since the summer break. He has qualified behind his teammate at each race since then, which has made his race days more challenging.
“I just try and feel a bit more confident going into Turn 1 and in qualifying, because clearly these last few weekends haven’t been the best approach,” he explained.
“So, yeah, I’m hopeful that we can qualify a bit further up like we were doing at the beginning of the year, and that makes the whole weekend a lot easier.”
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