Carlos Sainz pinpoints detail of Ferrari SF21 he needs to work on. Carlos on what he needs to work on with Ferrari car.

Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz reflects on the challenges of driving for several different Formula 1 years during his career:

“When I changed from Toro Rosso to Renault, I thought ‘OK, these two cars are completely different but it’s maybe a one off’, but then changing from Renault to McLaren it was then completely different again,” said Sainz. “Then, from McLaren to Ferrari was completely different again. So it kept opening up my eyes a bit how different everything is from those four different teams and how much you need to adapt. I guess I have some practice with it. But I would say it’s more down to the detail. When I arrived at Renault, that first rainy race in Austin, I was on the pace straight away. But I felt like I lacked the last two tenths from the toys – the diff maps, the engine braking and the last bit of driving style. The same applies to McLaren and probably the same applies to Ferrari. And then it’s also all the set-up options that you have in the car, how to use them, how to exploit them depending on the track. And there I’m talking a lot more about the mechanical and the aero – you just don’t know what is going to suit each track. You probably need years of experience with that car to know that one goes in one direction or the other depending on the circuit.” – the Ferrari driver explained.

The big picture of Carlos Sainz’s performances certainly supports this. His pace has been good so far in the 2021 Formula 1 season, despite the fact that he has only outqualified Charles Leclerc one time out of six Grands Prix, which perhaps should not be a surprise given how strong the Monegasque driver is on Saturdays.

But making the car work on cold tyres at circuits where it’s difficult to get energy into the fronts, more of a problem in Monaco and Baku than at upcoming circuits like Paul Ricard, the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone, is one of those details he needs to work on.

“Obviously the pace hasn’t been an issue, I think the pace has been strong all weekend. Although the race pace wasn’t at the level of Red Bull and the Mercedes, it was still very strong. So personally I still take the positives that the pace itself in the car is very good, but I need to improve with the cold feeling of the tyre.” – Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz concluded.