Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz has pointed out that any recent theories reporter by the media which explain his strong performance level in the second part of the season with the Maranello team’s F1-75 car development are “completely fake”.
The Spaniard had a difficult start to the 2022 Formula One championship and was not able to match the pace of his Maranello teammate Charles Leclerc in the early stages of the campaign, when the F1-75 car was slightly faster than Red Bull’s RB18.
However, Carlos Sainz gradually improved throughout the season, and secured his first Formula 1 win at the Silverstone Circuit in the British Grand Prix.
Carlos Sainz has rejected the theory that the F1-75’s car development direction was one of the key elements that led to this outcome, with his explanation being that he was able to adapt his driving style more to the F1-75 car.
“I’ve read this somewhere, where the car developed towards my style, and I think it’s completely wrong,” Carlos Sainz told media at the end of the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina circuit.
“The car feels exactly the same as [in] the beginning of the season. We’re just less quick compared to the Red Bulls or the Mercedes. I just learned how to drive it, I changed my driving style, fine-tuned the set-up a bit more to my liking. But the car didn’t develop in my direction or anything like that, so I hope this doesn’t get pointed out there because it’s completely fake and it’s not the real story of the year. We simply got out-developed by Mercedes and Red Bull.” – the Spanish driver added.
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Carlos Sainz finished the 2022 Formula 1 season in P5, overtaking Lewis Hamilton in the World Championship thanks to the results at Yas Marina, while his Maranello team-mate defeated Sergio Perez for second place in the Drivers standings.
After changing his driving style to better adapt to the F1-75 challenger during the campaign, Carlos Sainz confirmed that he also took this approach with the goal of reducing the gap to Charles Leclerc.
“I think he deserves to finish second this year,” Carlos Sainz pointed out – “He’s been super strong all season with this generation of cars. He’s been driving extremely well, and he made me have to adapt and change a bit my driving to try and be closer to him. But [congratulations to him] because he did a great season on his side on his driving, and he deserves to be in front of Checo [Sergio Perez].” – Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz concluded.
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