Carlos Sainz urges Ferrari to bring “much-needed updates for tracks like these” amid Chinese GP results. Carlos Sainz reacts to Ferrari result and performance in China.

Following the return of the Chinese Grand Prix to the Formula 1 championship, Scuderia Ferrari secured a fourth and fifth place with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. The positive takeaway from the Shanghai weekend is represented only by the total number of points collected, namely 31 including yesterday’s Sprint Race, the second-best haul behind Red Bull. Despite a difficult qualifying session, there was a comeback that fell short – the first time this season – of reaching the podium.

Max Verstappen therefore continues his triumphant march, establishing a gap of 8 tenths per lap on everyone, leading to an easy victory. Lando Norris finished second, delivering an outstanding performance. Sergio Perez took third place but couldn’t seal another Red Bull double, finishing ahead of the two Ferrari cars, thereby widening the gap in the Constructors’ Championship.

There’s work to be done at Ferrari, which was expected to have a significant performance here but leaves with many doubts. These doubts stem from both the well-established difficulty in getting the soft tires to work properly for a single lap and the complete lack of pace on hard tires during the race. The first updates for the Scuderia will arrive at the upcoming Miami Grand Prix.

Defensive race
For the first time in the races he’s entered this year, Carlos Sainz failed to reach the podium. The Spaniard, starting from seventh on the grid after yesterday’s disappointing qualifying performance at the 5.451-kilometre Shanghai International Circuit, climbed up to fifth place – behind his teammate Charles Leclerc – but couldn’t advance further. The two Red Bull cars and even Lando Norris’s McLaren were too far ahead, with Norris being a great surprise of this Chinese GP with his second-place finish in Shanghai.

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In search of updates
“We were particularly far from Red Bull this weekend,” admitted Carlos Sainz in his interview for Sky Sport F1 at the end of the Chinese Grand Prix – “but I had already understood from the simulator that this would be a tough track for our car. We were slow all weekend, and the upgrades for the upcoming races must help us for these types of corners, where we struggle. The updates will be crucial on this type of track. For races like Australia, we’re more or less okay, but it’s true that Red Bull introduced innovations for Japan that were evident on these tracks. We’re expecting more to see if something interesting will arrive to bring, and then we’ll see what we’ll get,” concluded the Spaniard.

Focus is now on Florida. The World Championship takes a break for a week. We return to the track for the sixth race of the season in Miami, the final stop before the start of the European leg of the 2024 Formula 1 season.