The start of the 2022 season was not the best for Carlos Sainz, who arrived with high hopes after signing a great debut with those in red in the previous year, beating his teammate Charles Leclerc and finishing as ‘the best of the rest’ in the overall ranking.
However, from the first race he recognized that he was not comfortable with his car, a very fast F1-75, but quite difficult to drive. On the other side of the garage they got off to a good start, rising to the top in Bahrain and battling it out in parallel with Max Verstappen in Saudi Arabia, as well as another win in Australia.
That, added to the abandonment of the Madrilenian in Melbourne and Imola for getting stuck in the gravel, opened an almost unattainable gap in the world championship, but little by little, Sainz was adapting to the Maranello car.
And that’s how his long-awaited victory came at the British Grand Prix, where a glimmer of hope opened up in his almost remote chances of being world champion in 2022.
Taking the pressure off him with his first pole position and his debut as a winner of a test in the highest category of motorsport was the best thing that could happen to him, although the breakage of his engine in Austria was a severe setback that has left him at the expense of what Ferrari decides to do in the next strategies.
The Spaniard is now 37 points behind Leclerc and 75 behind the overall leader, Max Verstappen, a distance of three grand prix that Sainz does not want to think about, since, as he himself has acknowledged, he makes better second parts of the year .
“We’ve done a good job in the last few weekends. Monaco was a bit of a turning point, we were fighting for pole position, just like in Baku, while in Canada it was for the win,” the Spaniard told the Sky Sports microphones.
“I wouldn’t say I’m 100 per cent, I think there is still room for improvement, as we saw at Silverstone,” he continued. “I understand those who say that I am not a driver to win the title with Ferrari because it has not been the easiest start to the season.
“But if you look closely at my last four or five seasons in Formula 1, I’ve always hit my peak in the second half, and I’ve had very strong second halves, so we’re going to wait and see what happens.” Spanish of the most successful team in history.
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