Carlos Sainz got behind the wheel of the Ferrari F1-75 in the morning session of the second day of pre-season testing to continue gathering information after finishing third on the first day. The man from Madrid once again starred in a solid performance with many laps and a great time that helped him to be second, just over two tenths off the best time of Daniel Ricciardo.
The #55 spoke after leaving the car to Charles Leclerc for the afternoon, and acknowledged being very satisfied with the work done so far: “It’s a good start, especially here in Barcelona, I’m very happy to do all those laps that I’ve done”.
“We’ll see if it’s a good start when we go to a race, but we’ve had a day and a half with no problems, managing to complete the whole plan and putting in a lot of laps,” Sainz said. “It has been something quite normal, because we have had no setbacks and we have followed what we had in mind.”
“As I said, if it’s a good start or a bad start, I don’t know, because in this F1 you can go 3 or 4 seconds slower, so we don’t know where everyone is,” explained the Ferrari driver.
“It’s been a good start in terms of reliability, we’ve done a day and a half with no problems, and that’s encouraging for us,” he said. “Unfortunately it’s not exciting, because we’re not near the limit and we’re not going to find the performance, but we’re going around and completing it.”
Carlos Sainz, who finished fifth with 73 laps completed, also detailed the action that caught the attention of many, as he followed Max Verstappen through a series of laps on day one to see what it was like to follow a car under the new rules: “I did it on purpose, obviously I can say I noticed some differences, and it’s pretty obvious, but I’m positive about it, optimistic because I think it’s going in the right direction.”
“This is one of my favorite seasons in Formula 1 just because of the challenge it entails and because of the amount of contributions that a driver can make to the development of the car,” the Madrid native continued. “I came to Ferrari with a car that was already done, and this year is a new start for me, and I feel like it’s a good opportunity to give my opinion and develop it.”
“High speed is very good, because you are glued to the ground and the car produces downforce, it’s fantastic to drive, this year I’m having fun driving, but I’m still discovering new things,” he said.
The 2022 single-seaters are very different from those of other courses, and that is something that Sainz acknowledges: “It feels different from 2021 and from previous seasons, and I think that until we put them to the limit, we will not know what the differences. With my car, taking fuel or adding, I can go three or four seconds slower, it is impossible to predict when you have that margin where you will be.
“I find them very fun to drive, last year they were, but this year is in a different way. They all stand out because they are different, there are many things to see from the others, because the teams have gone in different directions, it is the beauty of Formula 1, and I like to see that,” he explained.
“It is what these cars have been created for and what such a huge investment has been made to make a new single-seater,” said Ferrari. “Because of how heavy they are, they behave worse in slow corners, and because of the ground effect, that you will always have more load in fast corners, it is pure science.”
Sainz also spoke about one of the problems that most concerns the drivers, visibility from the cockpit: “It has positively surprised me, the only time I don’t see is when I get on the grid, which I have no idea if I’m on the line, so they will have to be changed, because we see absolutely nothing.
As for his rivals, he said: “What has surprised me the most are the different concept cars out there, but then they all behave more or less in the same way on the track. The biggest differences are in the sidepods, although There doesn’t seem to be much of a difference.”
To finish, Carlos Sainz wanted to explain how the teams could solve the ‘porpoising’ problem and encouraged tifosi: “It depends on the configuration you have and whether or not you use the DRS, so it’s a new world and we have to understand how it works to be among the best, because it could be something recurring this year”
“Let [the fans] rejoice because the team has made a reliable car so far and give us time to find the performance, because we are not close to it yet. Be patient,” he concluded.
