Carlos Sainz, who opened his 2022 season with two podiums, since he was second in Bahrain and third in Saudi Arabia, and hopes to be able to take a step forward in the Australian GP to try to overtake his teammate and current leader for the first time of the championship, Charles Leclerc.
In the first free practice session at Albert Park, the Madrid driver managed to set the fastest time, while in the second, and despite being competitive for practically the entire FP2, he finished third, behind Leclerc and Max Verstappen, the two rivals whom it still seems unable to reach.
As soon as he got out of his car, Sainz spoke about his feelings on the renovated Melbourne track and acknowledged being happy despite the porpoising problems that are still quite big in the Ferrari F1-75.
“It’s a very complicated tarmac, very demanding, on which it’s quite difficult to drive. And we’re also fighting rebounds as you’ve seen.”
“It hasn’t been easy so far, but at least I’ve been able to be fast, in both sessions I’ve been within the rhythm [we were looking for]. So I’m looking forward to tomorrow,” said a very positive Spanish rider. .
The tires seem to be the other issue of concern for Carlos Sainz , since just like what happened in Saudi Arabia, warming them up is not an easy task and their best performance does not come on the first timed lap.
“It’s tricky, especially with the harder ones. But yeah, it seems like the soft isn’t quite ready on the first fast lap either. After a cool down lap, the soft is getting faster and faster.”
“But it’s not a question of our warm-up, it’s just one more characteristic of the tires that we also saw in Jeddah. With the used one I felt more comfortable than with the new one, so it is something that we have to understand going into the race. qualifying tomorrow. I think it will be quite an interesting session because of this,” added the #55.
As for the problems that delayed his appearance on the track in the first practice session, Carlos Sainz was calm and downplayed the setback.
“You know, you put on a brand new front wing and for some reason, that front wing doesn’t quite fit the chassis because of all the sensors you have, so mechanically we couldn’t fit it properly. But hey, it’s typical FP1”, concluded the Spanish Ferrari driver .
