Having been in championship competition through the first half of final season, Ferrari’s 2023 fortunes haven’t been as form and the workforce has managed simply three podium finishes this season.
All three have been courtesy of Charles Leclerc as Sainz has not managed to face among the many high three finishers this season, as an inconsistent SF-23 automobile has vacillated all through the highest 10 order.
The continued battle with Mercedes, allied to the higher competitiveness of Aston Martin and now McLaren, has supplied Ferrari stern competitors with mere tenths between every workforce. This has confirmed to be the distinction between high three outcomes and finishes amid the decrease reaches of the factors.
Sainz reckons that the closeness of those battles signifies that Ferrari ought to rejoice the center floor extra usually. By that measure, he added that it should settle for weekends the place outcomes is probably not notably stellar if the workforce and drivers have carried out to their utmost.
“It has been clearly comparatively a irritating begin after we form of realised that Pink Bull was such a giant step forward of us and it was going to be tough to problem them,” Sainz defined.
“I believe all of us anticipated the automobile to be extra aggressive, ourselves to be extra aggressive and the sector has bought actually, actually tight.
“Now you are going by way of these large up and downs the place some weekends you is likely to be combating for P3 and others you are simply ending P8, which in efficiency swing simply may imply you might be 0.1s in entrance lacking or 0.1s behind that tight subject, which isn’t lots.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23, Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL60, collide at the beginning of the race
Photograph by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
“However the finish outcome seems very totally different in Ferrari while you come again with a P3 or P8. Â And now we simply must form of settle for that is the struggle that we’re in.
“If one weekend we have to go and struggle for P5 and that is the utmost we will do, we have to rejoice the truth that we have carried out the utmost with what we’ve got this yr.
Sainz says that the workforce should cease placing stress on itself to vow outcomes that it can not ship, and divert its give attention to conducting its duties over a race weekend within the right method.
He says that this can enable the workforce to construct up its haul of factors within the constructors’ championship the place it at the moment sits fourth, however solely 5 factors behind Aston Martin forward.
“[We need to] focus extra on maximising the automobile’s potential, and the workforce’s efficiency on this second half of the season,” the Spaniard added.
“We need to be certain that we maximise our constructor factors, cease form of anticipating a win or a podium, and simply give attention to nailing the rules and be constant.”