Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz is confident the Maranello team will be able to fight for the top places next weekend in the Dutch Grand Prix despite the disappointing pace shown by the F1-75 cars during the Spa-Francorchamps weekend in Belgium.
Carlos Sainz began the race from pole position at Spa, after Max Verstappen received grid penalties for using a new engine, but it was clear from the start that the F1-75 car did not have enough pace to be able to defend against the much faster RB18 cars: the Dutchman easily made his way through the pack and after just 12 laps he was leading the race, as the Ferrari could offer little in terms of defence.
While Max Verstappen was in a league of his own, the superiority of the Red Bull car this even allowed Sergio Perez to easily secure second place, as the Mexican overtook Carlos Sainz to cap a miserable day for the Maranello team in Belgium. For the first time this season, Ferrari was left helpless against its rivals.
During the last few laps of the Spa race, Carlos Sainz was at least able to manage a small advantage to Mercedes’ George Russell and take a podium finish, while his Maranello team-mate Charles Leclerc had to settle for sixth place after a penalty for speeding in the pit lane. Regardless, the huge difference in terms of race pace between Ferrari and Red Bull was clear just by looking at how Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc could recover from the back.
The Spaniard had no choice but to admit the “power” of the Red Bull was just too much for Ferrari this weekend, as the Italian side now need to evaluate and understand where the huge gap came from: “I don’t know how much per lap but it was a lot per lap.” – Carlos Sainz explained when asked by Sky Sports F1 how big the gap between the F1-74 and Red Bull was at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps – “We will have to go back and analyse why. I think it’s a one-off. I think they just had a super-strong weekend. We had a bit of a weaker one on a track that probably didn’t suit us a lot. So we need to analyse why and take some some conclusions, but on our race we did everything we could do today but we were just not fast enough.” – he added.
Despite the poor result in Belgium, Carlos Sainz does not believe the Belgian Grand Prix is puts an end to Scuderia Ferrari’s title prospects this season and is confident the Italian side can get back in the fight at the next grand prix at Zandvoort. When asked if Ferrari is still focused on trying to recover the gap to Red Bull, or rather on keeping Mercedes behind in the Constructors Standings, Carlos Sainz was confident Ferrari will be able to challenge Red Bull at future races:
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“Today it was Mercedes, but I think at Zandvoort we can be back on form and beat Red Bull again. I’m not particularly worried about that. I think we just had a bit of a difficult weekend and this track was perfectly suited to Red Bull. I think Zandvoort is a better hunting ground for us and we should be stronger there. It doesn’t mean we should beat Red Bull or comfortably beat them, but get back in the fight? I am convinced we should.” – the Spaniard continued.
Carlos Sainz is fourth in the Drivers’ Championship ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix, 113 points behind leader Max Verstappen and 15 behind his Maranello team-mate Charles Leclerc in third.
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