Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz believes that the battle between McLaren and the Maranello team is “very tight” following a promising Emilia Romagna Grand Prix for both sides. McLaren secured their first podium of the 2021 Formula 1 season at the Imola circuit with Lando Norris, who finished the race on the last step of the podium, while Scuderia Ferrari earned fourth and fifth places finishes with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz respectively, despite the fact that the Monegasque driver looked at some point in a strong position to score a podium finish.
The teams are likely to be in the fight for the “best of the race” status behind Mercedes and Red Bull, and potentially alongside AlphaTauri, but appear to have a decent margin to Aston Martin and Alpine at this stage.
Speaking after another points finish on just his second race for Ferrari, Carlos Sainz said that he felt McLaren have had the “upper hand” in the first two races of the year, but expects Ferrari to be the quicker team when the Formula 1 season arrives at “a track that maybe favours us”.
“I think it is very tight, honestly” – Carlos said – It is very difficult to pick from. I think the McLaren has its strengths and its weaknesses. But what makes it a really nice fight is that we are quick in very different places on the track and that makes it a very fun battle. It looked like in Imola, Lando did a very good job of exploiting the whole car potential, and he was on it the whole weekend especially from Saturday onwards, and he did a good race. Maybe they had a bit of the upper hand this weekend, and they had the upper hand, a tiny bit, the last two weekends, but as soon as we do a very good weekend and we go to a track that maybe favours us, I think we can be ahead.” – Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz concluded.
The fight will now move at the Portimao Circuit, which will host the next round of the 2021 Formula 1 season.
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