The Spanish driver helped the Maranello outfit to a one-two finish in the first race of the season by finishing behind Charles Leclerc in the Bahrain Grand Prix, but was frustrated by his own performance.
Carlos Sainz admitted that he was unable to extract the full potential of the new F1-75, something that his team-mate was able to do, and also said that he does not know how to explain why he is finding it so difficult at the moment.
Leaving that aside, the man from Madrid explained that after the conversations between him and Ferrari during the winter, it seems that his future is more than assured with the Italian team and, from the team, they also confirmed that they had reached an agreement and only the signature was missing.
Asked after the Bahrain GP about it, Sainz said: “I think we’re close. Very close. Very, very close. Extremely close. We’ve almost got it.”
While the team manager, Mattia Binotto , added: “I think we reached an agreement. Now it’s just a matter of passing it on paper.”
Sainz’s “hardest weekend” with Ferrari in F1
While Sainz ‘s long-term future seems more than assured, the Spaniard can only look and focus at the moment on the 2022 Formula 1 season.
“In FP1, FP2 and FP3 I was far behind, the furthest I’ve ever been at Ferrari , and that’s why even with a one-two finish, I’m not entirely happy with the weekend,” explained the #55.
“As a Ferrari driver, it has been my most difficult weekend and that just shows that I need to put my head down, understand the car, understand where Charles is making the difference, see the way he approaches every corner and how he handles the tyres. “.
“I need to improve if I want to fight for wins. I will put my head down and try to take some steps before I get to Jeddah. Can I improve all of that from one weekend to the next? I think so.”
“Can I reduce the deficit completely? That is a very good question. I hope I can, what I am sure of is that I will work hard to achieve it,” he added.
Sainz believes his driving style is not working with the new 2022 F1 cars, and that explains why the gap with Leclerc is now bigger than ever between them.
“I haven’t been driving the way this car should be driven, or at least in terms of the setup we have now in the car,” he said.
“Clearly Charles managed to do a better job, he’s been quicker all weekend. I think I only got very close in Q2 and Q3. But the rest of the weekend I’ve been like three tenths of second behind, both in the race and in practice”.
“It’s a deficit that we never saw last year. No, I was never within three tenths, and that’s something new for me… It’s been a bit of a tough weekend.”
“I need to put my head down, figure out where those three or four tenths are and as soon as I find them and know exactly how I need to drive this car, then I’m sure I can get back into the fight for wins. But until then, I’ll keep my head down. And I’ll keep working.”
