Sainz Admits Fifth Place Peak in Chinese Grand Prix Struggle

During the Chinese Grand Prix, Carlos Sainz acknowledged that, given the Ferrari’s pace and his initial setbacks, securing fifth place was the best achievable result.

Carlos Sainz does not believe he could have hoped for better than fifth place in China, given his starting position and the pace of the Ferrari during the race. After spending the beginning of the race catching up, as he said, he maximized the possible result.

“I think that, given our pace, it was impossible to do better than fifth,” he stated. “Moreover, we had a very bad start with a situation in turns 1 and 2 that cost our two cars two positions.”

“From there, we just made up for lost time, we had to stop very early for the hard tire. Then we had to stop on the 18th lap or something like that, which made it last an eternity with the hard tire, and we couldn’t move forward much more.”

“At least we saved fifth place, but given the car’s pace this weekend, the decisions we made, and the situation after the start, I think that was the maximum we could achieve.”

“The weekend wasn’t very good for us as a team. I think we just weren’t strong enough this weekend, sixth and seventh in qualifying and clearly a bit below in the race. We clearly lacked pace compared to Norris’s McLaren.”

The Spaniard is convinced that Ferrari must introduce updates to keep pace with the competition, especially on tracks where the SF-24 is already showing its limits.

“For this type of circuit, yes. Here and at Suzuka, we need something. For circuits like Australia, we are better off. There will be circuits where Red Bull will clearly be ahead anyway, and where McLaren will be stronger.”

“There will be other circuits like Australia where I think we will be competitive, so it depends a lot on the circuit. But it is clear that if we want to be stronger on circuits like China, we need a better platform for this type of track.”

Sainz expects a better weekend for Ferrari in Miami, but not as good as in Melbourne: “I think so. For Miami, I have a better feeling than here. It won’t be like in Australia, but I think Miami should be a bit better for our car.”