Australia winner Carlos Sainz believes he would have put Max Verstappen under pressure even without the retirement: “I had the pace to challenge Max “
Although Carlos Sainz had an easy game after Verstappen’s retirement, the Ferrari driver believes that he would have been able to beat the three-time world champion even without the technical problems at Red Bull. “I knew that I had the pace to challenge Max this weekend and in this race,” Sainz sums up.
Sainz impressed with a good performance in qualifying, missing out on pole position by just 0.270 seconds. “Our car worked really well this weekend,” said the Spaniard, who celebrated victory at the Australian Grand Prix just 16 days after his appendectomy.
However, Sainz does not believe that Ferrari will be able to beat the reigning world champion in the upcoming races. This is despite the fact that the data actually shows that Ferrari would probably have been slightly faster than Max Verstappen in Melbourne.
“I think it will be difficult to be at the front on every track until we bring in an upgrade to close the gap that we saw in Bahrain and Jeddah,” says the Ferrari driver, taking the wind out of the tifosi’s sails. “But in Australia, it felt like a winning car from the first lap. “
Sainz “felt that he was pretty fast “
Sainz started the Australian GP from the dirty side and, despite a good start, was unable to attack Verstappen on the way to the first corner. “But from then on, the first one and a half laps were very strategic because you wanted to protect the tire from graining,” the 29-year-old explains.
Nevertheless, Sainz knew that he might have a chance against the Red Bull. “I had the feeling that I could keep up with him on the first lap. And I thought that if I could get into the DRS area after the first lap, we could put him under a bit of pressure,” smiled the Ferrari driver, who ultimately benefited from Verstappen’s problems.
“I think he made a mistake in turn 3 that allowed me to stay inside the DRS. I could feel that I was quite fast,” says Sainz, who seized his chance shortly after the mistake and took the lead. The Ferrari driver was unaware at the post-race press conference that the world champion’s braking problems began shortly after the start.
“But in dirty air it’s obviously not the same as in clean air with a big gap,” muses the Australian winner about the difficulties of the competition. “So that’s it for him. It’s a shame, because I think we would have had a very good fight for first place today. “
Ferrari “has to be there” if Red Bull makes a mistake
“I saw how he pushed on the first lap and I thought to myself: ‘Okay, I’ll push with him too and challenge the car’,” grins Sainz, who is also honest: “But of course it could also have been down to the brakes.”
“To be honest, I don’t know, but it felt good to overtake him, with or without brake problems,” admits the Ferrari driver. It is not easy to overtake a Red Bull on the track, but “if you are there and can put pressure on Red Bull, sometimes you can do it.”
In the end, the only thing that counts is who wins the race and stands at the top of the podium. If Red Bull makes a mistake, the competition has to be there, as Sainz knows: “You have to be there, and we have to be there more often if we want to win.”
“I’m happy to have taken the win,” says the Spaniard with relief. After Silverstone 2022 and Singapore 2023, the Ferrari driver is delighted with his third Grand Prix victory, while Verstappen already has 56 wins to his name. Sainz also smiles: “He’s had a lot of them. So, yes, I’m happy to be back here. “
