Carlos Sainz arrived in the Qatar Grand Prix paddock determined to give his all to help the Ferrari team keep the fight for the constructors’ championship open.
But he could not avoid questions about his tensions with Charles Leclerc after arriving in Las Vegas.
The Spaniard and the Monegasque were summoned by Frédéric Vasseur. And according to Sainz, everything is fine today.
“We discussed it, and we drew conclusions. We are ready to move on this weekend, after a bad race for both of us. We want to win the constructors’ title by working together as we have done for four years.”
Sainz stressed that tensions are inevitable when the two men tend to be close on the track.
“Charles has already said this and I completely agree. It always happens between us because we often ride together in races. We go through misunderstandings which we often express in the heat of the moment and which frustrate us a lot.”
“After a few days, you can see things with a little more perspective, put things into perspective a little more and give yourself a little time to analyze things and draw conclusions about what is happening. You then realize that when you discuss the things, you can actually understand them and put them aside.”
“This is the exercise we have been subjected to for four years, because we always share the same piece of tarmac and we always fight against each other on the track, because we drive the same car and we are at the same pace. We’ve been through this so many times that we know how to talk about it and move on.”
How does he see the end of the season then? Difficult already because of the accumulated fatigue.
“It won’t be easy, but we are at the end of the season, and perfect execution is increasingly difficult as fatigue increases and a Sprint weekend is in itself more dangerous.”
“A less than perfect weekend can happen. The important thing, when that happens, is to turn the page very quickly and start again as best as possible in the next session. We have to be focused and know what the objective is what we want to achieve.”
“In Vegas the race was not without imperfections and our performance did not live up to our expectations. The result, however, was that the most we could achieve was third and fourth place and we We won them.”
“The result depends on many factors, not just the absolute level of your performance, so maybe we could see a reverse situation here and, even on a track that should not allow us to be considered favorites, we want give our best to have a perfect execution, which allows us to obtain the best possible result.”
“If we can do that, we might get some satisfaction and do even better than what this layout seems to be able to give us. Obviously, we’ll know more when we go to the track, which I’m looking forward to.”
Can Ferrari beat McLaren F1 in the championship with still a 24 point deficit out of 103 possible?
“It’s interesting to see where Ferrari and McLaren were in 2020, relaunching after a crisis. The two most historic teams! And we are back in the fight for the championship. I have a lot of respect for them, for the people who run this program, but I want to beat them.”
“On paper, it’s not the best circuit for us. But F1 surprises us all the time and we could still come out with a good scenario. We will try to have the best weekend possible, to limit the damage, but the story could be very different on Sunday.”
“It would be the best way to end the adventure with Ferrari, with a victory and the constructors’ title. I’m trying to get them because it would be the best way to end this part of my career, and we’re going to give everything in knowing that McLaren is favorite.”
