With the worst performance to the best result: This is how Carlos Sainz sums up the season opener in Bahrain – Team confirms agreement on new contract
Carlos Sainz and the Ferrari team are likely to extend their contract, which currently runs until the end of 2022, ahead of schedule. This was considered a poorly kept secret in Formula 1 anyway, but was almost officially announced after Sainz’s second place finish in Ferrari’s one-two in Bahrain
“We are close,” Sainz said at the Ferrari post-race media briefing. “Very close. Very, very close. Very close. Extremely close. Almost there.” And team boss Mattia Binotto is also no longer trying to keep up the suspense for the expected press release: “We have agreed. It’s just a matter of putting it on paper now.”
Bahrain was not the season opener Sainz had hoped for. Although he equalled his best ever result in Formula 1 (Monza 2020 on McLaren and Monaco 2021 on Ferrari) with second place, the gap to team-mate Charles Leclerc was greater throughout the race weekend than during the 2021 season.
In the free practice sessions he was “as far behind as I’ve ever been during my Ferrari time”, Sainz says self-critically, “and that’s also the reason why I can’t be completely satisfied despite the double victory. It’s been my most difficult weekend so far since I’ve been driving for Ferrari, and that proves that now I have to put my head down and understand the car.”
“I need to see through where Charles makes the difference with his driving style, how he approaches the corners and handles the tyres, also in the race. Because I have to get better if I want to win. Can I get better by next weekend? I think so. Can I get rid of the deficit completely? That’s a very good question.”
It was “obvious”, says Sainz, that he was “weak” in Bahrain: “I didn’t drive the way you have to drive with this set-up. Charles did a better job. He was faster all weekend. I only managed a few good laps in Q2 and Q3. But otherwise I was always three tenths off.”
“That’s a gap I never had in 2021. I was never three tenths behind then. This is new for me. I have to find out where these three or four tenths come from and when I know that, then I have to set up the car exactly to my liking and learn how to drive it best. Then I’m sure I can win races as well.”
Just before his third pit stop on lap 44, Sainz was 17.9 seconds behind Leclerc. That equates to an average of 0.4 seconds per lap. His gap to Verstappen at that point was 12.9 seconds. Without a safety car phase and Red Bull’s late technical problems, it would not have been possible to finish any better than third.
“I had a good chance at the restart because I got away well behind Charles and Max,” recalled Sainz. “Max defended well though, I must say. Then suddenly I saw the red tail light flashing. That’s when I said to myself: ‘This is my chance now!’ And I took a chance. His bad luck, because he should have been second. But good for Ferrari. “
Overtaking Verstappen under his own steam would have been “very difficult”, the 27-year-old Spaniard admits: “Before turn 1 I was on a couple of times, but they seem to have very good top speed. It was never quite enough. He defended well and then it was also quite close at one point because the DRS zone ended a few metres too early.”
“Then the problems occurred with him. From that point of view, I have to consider myself lucky that I overtook him and finished second. But Max also drove very well the whole weekend. I feel sorry for him. On the other hand, you have to say that we did a very good job in terms of reliability, and that’s what counts.”
“Ferrari,” he rejoices, “is back. And they did it right, with a double victory. That’s where the team should have been for the past two years. Now the hard work is paying off. For me personally, it was a difficult weekend, there’s nothing to sugarcoat. But at least I managed to bring home the double victory for the team. “
