Carlos Sainz, Ferrari Formula 1 driver, believes the team will return to its “normal position” in the Italian Grand Prix. He insists that the team will challenge its rivals for the podiums this weekend.
The Scuderia remained unlucky at Zandvoort, where Sainz finished fifth while his team-mate Charles Leclerc retired owing to floor damage.
The Monegasque crashed in qualifying while he and his team mate complained about SF-23. They had “zero idea” about the car limits and its behavior.
Ferrari F1 team promised to provide a competitive car in 2024. It remains confident of its problem’s understanding and the way forward. Therefore, Sainz insisted to remain focused for the rest of the season to yield maximum results.
He told Sky Sports: “Don’t get me wrong, we have started to understand what it is [with the handling]. But there is very little margin to correct it now that the car is built. And the car is pretty much done and developed.
“We know we need to change things for next year. But for this year, circuits like Zandvoort and windy conditions and high downforce tracks, we are simply going to be slow.”
The Spaniard remained confident of a better future as finished sixth with a gap of 1.187 seconds to polesitter.
He said: “We were fighting with cars that were a lot quicker than us the whole weekend.
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“It was just a whole race of fighting through, getting the calls right… our pace was nowhere near that [to earn fifth place].
“It means we executed the race well; we did everything well.
“I’m happy with the result, not happy with how much I struggled and how difficult it was out there for us.”
Sainz is hopeful that the team could challenge the teams for podium at its home race.
He said: “For Monza, I expect better things. Because in Spa, we were a lot quicker than we were [in Zandvoort] and I think honestly, at low-downforce tracks, we should be better and we should be back to our normal position.”
