The Spaniard is the one driver apart from Max Verstappen to have gained a race in 2024 and is simply seven factors behind his team-mate Charles Leclerc within the standings regardless of having missed the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on medical grounds.
His sturdy type has made him a key participant within the F1 driver market foolish season for subsequent 12 months, having been linked with Purple Bull and Mercedes, whereas Audi is thought to need him on board.
The way in which through which he has been higher in a position to ship outcomes for Ferrari this season has been noticeable and prompted some to counsel that there was a change of method or revised driving fashion.
However reflecting himself on why issues are clicking higher to this point, he says it’s all right down to the best way that Ferrari’s new SF-24 is extra benign in its dealing with than final 12 months’s peaky challenger.
“There’s nothing particularly within the automotive that I like or dislike, aside from a extra secure platform that provides you much less dangerous moments throughout a lap, that provides you much less scares,” defined Sainz.
“Final 12 months, throughout a qualifying lap or throughout a race, we might have loads of massive moments that we didn’t perceive the place they had been coming from. It was taking away confidence usually.
“This 12 months, since winter testing in Bahrain, you may already see within the three days of testing that we had little or no of these moments.”
Carlos Sainz, Scuderia Ferrari, third place, within the Press Convention
Picture by: Motorsport Images
Sainz explains that having a automotive that’s not so nervous on the sting means that there’s elevated driver confidence, which in flip means he can push more durable.
“The automotive simply appears a extra secure platform that permits you to keep nearer to the restrict extra usually,” he mentioned.
“And that, ultimately, means extra confidence, and extra confidence means higher efficiency.
“When it comes to driving fashion and all that, it’s a really related automotive to final 12 months. We drive it in precisely the identical means as final 12 months’s automotive.”
Regardless of having discovered over the winter that his contract wouldn’t be renewed for 2025, with Ferrari having opted to signal Lewis Hamilton, Sainz feels he’s delivering at the very best he ever has throughout his 4 years with the squad.
Nevertheless, he’s not certain if he’s having fun with the type of his profession up to now.
“For certain, it has been my strongest begin to a season since I joined Ferrari,” he defined. “That is no secret. Am I at my finest? I don’t know. It’s a tough factor to reply.
“Clearly, it seems to be prefer it, as a result of the podiums are coming, and the outcomes are exhibiting. However I’ve been at my finest at McLaren, I’ve been at my finest in Toro Rosso.
“What adjustments is the automotive – some years you’ve got a greater automotive than others. Some years you’ve got a greater qualifying automotive or a race automotive. This 12 months, we have now a very good compromise between quali and the race it appears.
“Yeah, I’m driving at an excellent stage I feel however I’ve been in F1 at a very good stage earlier than, so I don’t know. Actually, I would wish to undergo all of my final 9 years to consider it.”