Carlos Sainz opens up on Ferrari updates in Austria: "Heading in the right direction"

Ferrari, Carlos Sainz confident heading to Austria
Carlos Sainz is eager for redemption and has a lot of confidence in Scuderia Ferrari for the next round of the 2023 Formula 1 season, the Austrian Grand Prix.

As we have previously mentioned, the SF-23 will bring a new front wing and a new floor clearly inspired by Red Bull, elements that should bring the Prancing Horse closer to the performance of the RB19 on a circuit that naturally suits the Maranello car. It was here that Ferrari achieved their last victory, thanks to Charles Leclerc, while Carlos Sainz was deprived of a podium due to an engine failure. These are his comments in the press conference ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend.

Carlos Sainz’s words
“With the updates, we expect another step in the right direction, that’s our goal,” the Spaniard said. “The team is working incredibly hard, and they have shown it by bringing these updates in time for the race: I can only thank the people who have worked to ensure that these parts arrived here. It has been a tremendous effort from everyone, and I want to congratulate them. We will do our best to make these updates work well and be as competitive as possible this weekend.” – the Spaniard explained.

Carlos Sainz on impeding
In Montreal, the Spaniard was penalized with a three-place grid penalty for impeding Pierre Gasly in Q1. The Ferrari driver has his proposal to reduce the risk of impeding, while maintaining that: “To avoid excessive traffic on the track, the short-term solution could be to divide Q1 into two groups of 10 cars for 8 minutes per group, with one car per team, especially on short tracks. For Q2, the traffic would already improve a lot, and Q3 is not a problem. It shouldn’t influence the grid too much because the car performances are divided, or there could be a single lap even in the sprint weekend, let’s see if it can work.” – the Ferrari man added.

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“Personally, I really liked that format because I enjoyed having the entire track for myself and feeling the pressure to perform at my best in just one lap. It would be fun for us and the sponsors, maybe a bit boring for the spectators, but it also depends on the current technology. To spice up the lap, perhaps the ghost car of the fastest lap can be added.” – Carlos Sainz continued.

The boost from Canada
“I believe that Canada provided a good boost for the whole team, especially when we look at the race pace: after a couple of difficult races where we struggled to find rhythm, it finally seemed like we had a good pace in Montreal. We managed to gain positions instead of going backward, and that makes a difference in how things are perceived. The perception and the pace were different, and that is good news and a nice injection of confidence for the team. Tire management was also tied to the race weekend, on a circuit with low degradation that helped us. However, this shows that when you have a good car and can manage the tires, even the strategies become simpler. That’s what we’re working on, to focus on race pace more often and to have a car like the one we had in Canada because it will help us gain positions in the race, make the strategy more flexible, and enjoy ourselves more.” – Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz concluded.