Carlos Sainz doesn’t seem to regret the summer break. “I feel very good,” he commented with a smile, “but I admit that after two weeks of relaxation, I’m ready, by the third week I start wanting to get back on the track. During the summer break, I can’t completely disconnect from Formula 1. We’re still halfway through the season, and after a while, you start thinking about getting back into action.”
However, Carlos Sainz’s weekend won’t kick off in the FP1 session tomorrow morning. In that session, he will hand over the car to Robert Shwartzman for the ‘rookie session’ as per the sporting regulations.
“I chose this weekend myself,” Carlos confirmed. “In reality, there weren’t many other options considering the weekends with the ‘sprint’ format. In some ways, I would have preferred Abu Dhabi, but I had already chosen it in 2022, and this year it’s Charles’s turn.”
Of course, the recurring topic of ‘renewal’ was one of the subjects addressed by Carlos Sainz on Zandvoort‘s Thursday, and at the moment, Carlos doesn’t seem to be tormented by the answers that will come from Maranello.
“It’s not a secret that I want to start next season already knowing my future,” he confirmed, “but we have the whole winter to discuss it. Now, we have very intense months ahead, with ten races to be contested. There’s a lot of work to do, and we need to focus on that, both to achieve the best possible results and to steer the 2024 project in the right direction. My future will be discussed after the races are over.”
And regarding the new car taking shape in Maranello, Carlos Sainz confirmed significant involvement from the drivers themselves…
“In addition to providing all possible feedback on the issues of the current car, we are more committed than ever to the simulator to try out solutions that could be useful for the 2024 project,” he explained. “It’s a very interesting process, you always learn something, and I believe that the ten races ahead of us will be very important to improve the project of the next car.”
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The ten races of the second half of the 2023 season will also be an opportunity to achieve the results that, for various reasons, Carlos didn’t manage to accomplish in the first half of the championship.
“Honestly, I feel good,” Carlos Sainz reiterated, “I’m in my third year with Ferrari, and I feel at the top of my form. Unfortunately, in several weekends, there have been unforeseen circumstances that didn’t allow me to achieve the results I could have gotten, but we still have ten more races to try. As a driver, I believe I’m at the peak of my career, I feel good, I believe I have a lot of experience, and I’m in a good moment.”
But what realistic results can be within reach?
“Beating Red Bull is difficult, very difficult,” Carlos emphasized, “we’ve seen that clearly in the first twelve races. The goal is to be ready to seize the opportunity if they make a mistake. I want to believe that it won’t be easy for them either to complete an entire season without a slip-up, and if there is one, we need to be in a position to take advantage of it.”
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