Carlos Sainz took fourth place in qualifying for the Sprint in Qatar.
The Ferrari driver was quite happy even if he perhaps expected better. McLaren F1 is indeed the benchmark as expected this weekend. For now…
“The good news is that the car was better balanced than expected, and the timesheets reflected that.”
“We went into qualifying thinking our rivals could still be fast here, and that’s what we’re seeing.”
“We didn't maximize our package anyway. Even though the lap was clean, there was a lot of understeer in the car, and I just couldn't get the car to turn the whole lap .”
“It was also difficult because it was only one chance to go one lap, so I couldn’t take too many risks with the track limits.”
“I think tomorrow we have the potential to improve the car a lot, especially with the soft tires, and that means we can hopefully make some progress.”
“In race pace, we are much closer to McLaren, even ahead. But everyone will still be able to change their settings tomorrow. So we will see!”
Charles Leclerc was fifth in Sprint qualifying, just behind his teammate.
“We gave everything and we are only 4th and 5th, which is not great considering the importance of this weekend for the constructors’ championship.”
“Let's say that, for one reason or another, the free session (finished in the lead, editor's note) was well above our expectations. I would say that it corresponds to what we expected. We are coming back to reality.”
“Obviously, after the first session, we hoped we could do better, but we didn’t succeed.”
Can Ferrari compete with McLaren over the duration of the Sprint?
“If we look at the first session, clearly yes. If we look at the qualifying sessions, no. For the moment, the most representative session is the qualifying session. We are not in the best position.”
“You never know. It's always different in racing.”
