After two first Grands Prix concluded with podiums, Carlos Sainz did not maintain his good momentum. Hampered during qualifying by a red flag then author of a slight cross in the fast chicane of turns 9 and 10, the Spaniard positioned himself in ninth place on the grid, far behind his teammate Charles Leclercon pole.
But the nightmare was just beginning. Forced to change the steering wheel just before the start, Sainz suffered a clutch problem, causing him to lose many positions. The pilot Ferrari finally finished his race on lap two, following a spin sent him into the gravel trap. A scenario completely opposite to that of his teammate, who signed his first Grand Slam in Formula 1 with pole, victory, fastest lap and command of the race from start to finish. The Monegasque is at the top of the standings with a comfortable lead: 34 points over his runner-up, George Russelland 38 on his teammate.
The latter, very disappointed following his weekend, wants to learn from this round in Melbourne. According to Sainz, this Grand Prix underlined how important it was to put all the elements together. “Charles drives very well”he believes. “As he said, he understood this car very well and he is doing good things with it.”
“Of course it’s a great car, but I also think he’s doing very good races and very good performances. I was waiting for qualifying and the race to see the progress I had made. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. There was bound to be a race where things didn’t go my way, and there was bound to be a race where I made mistakes. Now what’s important is to learn from of that. The most important thing is to come back and try to be perfect, and look a little bit more at the smallest detail. Because with the car we have this year, I think every race that we don’t finish represents a lot of lost points that we might have scored.”
The Madrid native isn’t sure if the Australian Grand Prix was the worst of his career, but there’s no doubt it was one of the most disappointing. “I don’t remember exactly my 100 and a few Grands Prix in F1, so it’s hard to say if it’s the worst. In any case, it was a weekend that looked like get off to a good start”judge Sainz. “I felt a lot more comfortable with the car and I put in some solid laps. And all of a sudden every bit of it made this weekend one of the most disappointing. I won’t overlook that. .”
“What’s important is that I learn from this, that we learn as a team, to be perfect, strong and tough in every compartment. And keep in mind that with 20 races left, anything can happen. We can only use this weekend to motivate ourselves to learn and have 20 perfect races.”
On the Ferrari side, the team wants to analyze in more detail the consequences of the late change of steering wheel. “We had to change it on the grid, just before the formation lap”by Mattia Binotto “Did it affect the start? I think that’s something we have to analyze because the settings on the steering wheels had to be identical. He had the anti-stall on the start, so we’ll look at the data to find an explanation for what happened.”
