Carlos Sainz has dismissed suggestions that his results have improved over the summer thanks to the development path taken by the Ferrari F1-75.
Charles Leclerc won two of the first three races of 2022 and consistently outperformed his teammate in the first leg of the season.
However, Carlos Sainz was then able to improve his performance and took his first F1 win at Silverstone in early summer.
Carlos Sainz’s improvements were in line with Ferrari’s development schedule, but Formula 1’s British Grand Prix winner downplayed the correlation between the two events.
“I read somewhere that the car was developed to suit my style, but that’s completely wrong,” Sainz said after the final F1 race in Abu Dhabi.
“The car feels exactly the same as it did at the beginning of the season, it just didn’t have the speed compared to Red Bull or Mercedes.”
“I was just learning how to drive, changed my driving style and tweaked the set-up a bit more to suit my taste.”
“But the car wasn’t developed in my direction and I hope it doesn’t come out like that because it’s completely fake and not the true story of the year.”
“We just fell behind Mercedes and Red Bull.”
Carlos Sainz’s performance definitely improved, but he ended up 62 points behind Charles Leclerc in the drivers’ standings.
Carlos Sainz, evaluating Charles Leclerc’s season, praised Leclerc for finishing second in the championship and said his team-mate’s strong form was behind his efforts to change his driving style and improve his pace. admitted that
“I think he deserves second place this year,” explained Carlos Sainz.
“He’s been very strong all season with this generation of car. He drives very well and I had to adapt and change my driving a bit to try to get close to him.”
“I would like to congratulate him. He has had a great season with his driving and he deserves to be in front of Czech (Sergio Perez).”
Category: F1 / Carlos Sainz Jr. / Ferrari