After finishing his first season with Scuderia Ferrari in fifth place in the drivers’ standings, Carlos Sainz is ready to confirm the excellent performances seen in 2021.
For the Spaniard, however, this second year at Ferrari must necessarily bring much more important results. The F1-75, the single-seater unveiled today in Maranello, is the result of a long period of work by the technicians of the Maranello team who spared no effort in creating what must be the car capable of allowing both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc to fight for the title.
On the sidelines of the presentation of a car that impressed as a result of technical solutions which have not yet appeared on the other cars already unveiled, Carlos Sainz spoke of the many unknowns that await all the drivers in 2022.
“These will probably be the most important tests of recent years in Formula 1. We will bring a completely new car and there will be a lot to learn. I think our laps will be a bit compromised because we will have to help the team both in the simulator and in the wind tunnel for the comparison of the data and the set-up tests that we didn’t need to do with last year’s cars. The tests will be important, we will have to invest a little more time on the set-up and try to find a good feeling with the car as soon as possible. Until this goal is achieved, I believe we will have cars that are difficult to push to the limit.” – he explained.
In the past few days, the two Williams drivers, Alexander Albon and Nicholas Latifi, had raised a visibility warning when cornering. Carlos Sainz, however, believes that everyone will very quickly get used to the new shapes and dimensions of the single-seaters.
“Now we can’t go back, but I’m confident that after a few laps in Barcelona we won’t think about it anymore. As drivers we are good at adapting very quickly to these changes ”.
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One of the objectives of the new technical regulation is to try to level the values in the field and try to make the driver again the protagonist rather than the vehicle. Will it really be like this?
“I think the biggest difference will be in the speed of adaptation. It will be necessary to quickly understand how to drive these cars, but I don’t think there will be big differences compared to other years. The level of F1 drivers is so high that I don’t think many will struggle to adapt. Everyone will understand how to drive these cars as fast as possible ”.
Carlos then dedicated a thought to the mechanics and engineers of the team who will be involved in a 23-race season this year.
“It is true that there are more races, but we will finish the championship in November and this will represent a challenge not only for us drivers, but also for the mechanics and engineers because in a more compressed period of time we will have a greater number of races. It will be difficult, but we have a motivated team. This new generation of ground-effect single-seaters should guarantee the possibility of following another car closely without the flow of dirty air causing a loss of downforce. However, we will have to wait to see the cars on the track to understand if the regulation has hit the mark or not. I think we have to wait until we are on the track and find ourselves in the wake of another car to understand if we will lose the load or not. Furthermore, this aspect can also change depending on the car you are following ”. – he added.
Finally, when asked if the drivers will have to approach curbs differently to avoid potential damage to the floor, Carlos Sainz was rather vague …
“It will depend on many factors such as the tires or the set-up adopted. There are too many variables at stake and it is still early to give an answer ”.
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