Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz is confident that his difficulties on the streets of Baku will not be following him into the Miami Grand Prix this weekend but admits that it has been difficult to find the “sweet spot” with the car set-up.
The Spaniard struggled to come within half a second of team-mate Charles Leclerc during qualifying in Baku and finished two places and over a pit stop’s worth of time behind Leclerc at the end of the grand prix.
Despite showing some pace on the medium compound Pirellis during the grand prix, a switch to the hard tyres saw a dramatic lack of pace in comparison to Leclerc.
When asked if he felt comfortable with this year’s car, the 28-year-old insisted: “Yes, apart from Baku, where I had an off weekend, I’m hoping it was a one-off.
“It is true that this year it’s more difficult to get the car in the sweet spot with the set-up, the car is a little bit more in the edge with many things and we’ve been struggling with many things this year, since winter testing, to try and find the sweet spot.
“But we’ve done a lot of progress on that, so far, and I feel like I understand the car.”
When discussing the limitations of the SF-23, Sainz maintained that he and the team are fully aware and are making decisions to improve the car’s overall pace.
“In the end you’d prefer a car that is, overall, a fast car even if it’s very difficult to put on the sweet spot.
“I think that just now the Red Bull is quicker, a lot quicker everywhere, especially in the race, looking at Baku.
“I think the limitation of this car is how on the edge it is, how difficult it is to find the sweet spot, and it’s also a peaky car, as we saw since test one, day one of testing, and we’re trying to improve it.”
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