Sainz: Ferrari ‘not at the level’ of McLaren, Red Bull at high-speed tracks like Austria
Carlos Sainz of Ferrari at the Austrian Grand Prix PlanetF1
Carlos Sainz Jr. has admitted that Scuderia Ferrari is “not at the level” of competition like Red Bull or McLaren, which has made it challenging to find the pace necessary to perform well in qualifying.
Speaking to media, Sainz reiterated the same sentiment he shared in Barcelona — that Ferrari simply isn’t able to compete at the front of the grid on fast tracks like Austria. Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz will start the Austrian Grand Prix in fourth and sixth, respectively.
Sainz: “We are still not at the level we want to be”
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com after qualifying for the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix, Sainz didn’t mince words. He was asked if Leclerc’s win a Monaco means that the team is surprised by its current performance — something that Sainz denied.
“I think Monaco was always an outlier,” he stated, before elaborating further on why that is the case.
“I was coming from tough weekends in Suzuka and China, and I knew that in these high-downforce, long-corner tracks, more normal tracks, that we are still not at the level we want to be — at the level of Red Bull and McLaren.”
He also pointed out the fact that he competition has continued to evolve.
“On top of that, you have the fact that Mercedes has done very good step, and suddenly it looks like it’s a tricky situation,” Sainz said.
“We’ve done our steps, we improved the car, it’s just that the others are improving them very well and obviously it’s a tight race at the top.”
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In Barcelona, Sainz spoke in depth about the big problem still plaguing the Ferrari: bouncing.
On high-speed corners, the Ferrari has a tendency to porpoise up and down, making it difficult for its drivers to extract the maximum from the machine.
After qualifying for Austria, Sainz elaborated on the issue, noting that Ferrari’s recent updates have made the car faster, “but also a bit more on edge,” making it tricky to put together a fast lap.
“Without going into too much detail, I think it’s a combination of we’re not great in high-speed corners, and at the same time we are bouncing which makes our high speed exaggeratedly slow.
“Here in Turn 7 or Turn 9, we get a tenth from Max in each of the corners, and it’s very difficult to crawl that back the rest of the track because we are almost equal in the slow speed.
“We’re working already back at home to try and understand this new package and the bouncing that we have with it and how we can improve for Silverstone.”