Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz scored his third podium finish of the 2021 Formula 1 championship last weekend in the Russian Grand Prix, but Carlos admits that he still is not “100 per cent at home” with the Maranello team’s SF21 car.
Carlos Sainz, who moved to the Italian side at the end of 2021, has been a consistent performer during his first year with Scuderia Ferrari, fnishing in the top ten in all but two Grands Prix and scoring so far 8.5 more points that his teammate Charles Leclerc during the current campaign.
However, Carlos was also involved in several incidents and crashes over the course of his race weekends, which have made things difficult for the Spanish driver, like the crash in qualifying at Hungaroring and heavy contacts with the wall in free practice for the Dutch Grand Prix and the Italian Grand Prix.
However, the mishaps have puzzled Carlos Sainz, whose track record is rarely botched by off circuit excursions or crashes:
“I think we’ve used our opportunities to score those three podiums. I guess you guys have seen it from the outside that I am not still 100 per cent at home with the car. I don’t want to bring back the crashes, but I’ve never crashed in my career. I’m a driver that never puts it in the wall. But for some reason, there have been a few crashes that show that I still don’t fully 100 per cent understand the car.” – he explained.
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In order to help him get a firm grid on the Maranello team’s SF21 car, Carlos Sainz reset in Russia his approach to the weekend, opting for a more gradual process that yielded productive results.
“I made a conscious effort also to take it step by step, through free practice, into qualy, and be fast really when I need to be fast instead of being fast straight away in FP1. And it has worked well, it has given me a good confidence, and I’ve been quick all weekend and I’ve been feeling at home. The podiums, as I said, we just maximised the opportunities that we got. It’s a good signal, a signal that the team under pressure and in the right moments, is performing well and we are getting the results whenever the chances are coming.” – the Spanish driver explained.
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