The Spaniard had a serious accident in the second free practice session on Friday after spinning, for which he ended up against the concrete wall at Turn 14.
The shock came after his frustrating back-to-back retirements in the opening laps of the Australian Grand Prix and Emilia Romagna, for which he is in the spotlight.
“I am the first who is not happy with the last two accidents, and I am the first who is analyzing it and trying to draw conclusions about it,” said Carlos Sainz after his day to forget.
“I remember going through a very similar scenario last year, where I crashed a couple of times, and right after that came my best run of races in Formula 1, so I know how to get out of it.”
“I think I’m still learning a lot about this car, it’s still surprising me, I’m not going to lie,” he continued. “There are things that are out of my control and they are surprising me, and as soon as I get up to speed with them and learn them, I think I can be fast on any lap, I think you could see that today.
The Ferrari driver insisted that the speed he had shown on the new circuit before the accident was the only positive he could take from the day: “The pace is still there, I’m quite fast.”
“Obviously I’m disappointed, because it’s not the way you want to start a weekend, giving the mechanics extra work,” he said. “I hit the barrier in the worst possible place, there was no Tecpro there, I went straight into a concrete wall, which even at low speed felt quite hard.”
“The car has damage, I’ve given everyone a bad Friday night, which is not ideal. The heat doesn’t make it easy for the tires, and I had this little mistake coming out of the inside corner,” explained the Spanish.
“I think I overheated the rear tires a bit and lost it completely. It’s going to be a tough Grand Prix, but a lot can happen, the pace is there, the car seems to be working well, so we’ll stick with the positive,” Sainz said. .
Asked before the start of the day by Motorsport.com about the importance of a clean weekend in Miami, he said he would take inspiration from his soccer team, Real Madrid ,’s comeback from Manchester City, whom they overcame to move on to the Champions League final.
“I think you’ve said it right, it’s more about a clean weekend than anything else, because the last two races, in terms of pure pace, I’ve been quicker than at the start of the year. But the results have been worse,” said the Spaniard.
“In Imola there was also a bit of bad luck, so things also happened that were out of my control, although there are 19 races left. As Real Madrid showed, everything in sport can change in a matter of minutes.”
“I’m still positive, and I just need a clean weekend to get everything up and running,” concluded Sainz, who hopes to reverse the situation after qualifying.
