Ferrari SF-23 was "a bit difficult to drive in wet conditions in fast corners"

Ferrari SF-23 was “a bit difficult to drive in wet conditions in fast corners” – Carlos Sainz. Carlos reflects on Sprint race.

First ‘mini-podium’
For the ‘real’ podium, we’ll have to wait at least another 24 hours, but for now, Carlos Sainz can enjoy the third position in the Austrian Sprint race. For the Spanish driver of Scuderia Ferrari, this is his first top-3 finish of the 2023 Formula One season and a confirmation of his performance this weekend at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg.

With the exception of yesterday afternoon’s Q3, Sainz has consistently been quite a bit ahead of Leclerc in these first two days.

Smart management
Interviewed after the race by Sky Sport F1, the #55 commented on his race, which he conducted intelligently: Sainz managed to stay out of trouble at the start and then took advantage of the performance drop of Nico Hülkenberg’s Haas to secure the third position, not too far behind Sergio Perez’s RB19. Despite this achievement, the driver from Madrid highlighted some shortcomings of his SF-23, once again not perfectly comfortable in cool temperatures and wet asphalt.

Confidence from the morning session
“This is a mini-podium, but today I managed to find the right balance: especially the clean lap I had to do this morning in Q1 gave me confidence,” commented Sainz, referring to the qualifying session of the Sprint race. “I saw that I had good confidence with the car and that I had made progress compared to yesterday,” added the 28-year-old Spaniard, “and I felt very good.” However, the red car did not make Sainz’s task easier, at least according to his own assessment.

SF-23 still imperfect
“The car was a bit difficult to drive in wet conditions in some fast corners,” said the Ferrari driver, “it didn’t give me much confidence, but I remained calm and still managed to finish third. For me, this was the best result today. We will see tomorrow how the car has improved. In qualifying, we were doing well in the fast corners, in terms of balance and feeling, and we were close to the Red Bull. Now, however, we focus on tomorrow’s race: if we do a good job, it can be considered as the first step towards the right direction. The team is working very well, they have put a lot of effort into bringing the developments here, and I hope to have a good race tomorrow to restart,” he concluded.