Carlos Sainz has conceded Ferrari’s rivals are a “step ahead” at the moment in the 2024 Formula 1 season, despite his return to the podium in the Austrian Grand Prix.
Sainz capitalised on Max Verstappen and Lando Norris’ clash with seven laps to go to secure third place at the Red Bull Ring to earn his fifth top-three finish this term.
The Spaniard lost out to Lewis Hamilton at the start, but the Briton was advised to hand the place back amid worries he would be penalised over going wide at Turn 1.
Sainz continued to circulate several seconds behind Russell’s leading Mercedes up until the point when Norris and Verstappen incurred punctures from their collision.
Although Oscar Piastri’s charging McLaren dispatched the Ferrari to attain second, Sainz held a comfortable advantage over Hamilton’s damaged Mercedes in fourth.
Asked whether he thought Ferrari maximised the weekend in Austria, Sainz, who is now 15 points behind team-mate Charles Leclerc, responded: “Yeah, I think so.
“I think there wasn’t much more in it this weekend. I think we did a good job yesterday in qualifying and in the Sprint.
“And today, you know, we set our targets in trying to beat the Mercedes. We managed to beat one, even if one of them got ahead.
“And then I was behind the two of them, passed Lewis and then it was all about trying to keep up with George.
“But like we saw yesterday in the sprint, it just looked like they had this half-a-tenth to a tenth of pace advantage.
“That it’s these three, four or five seconds that he was in front the whole race.
“I thought that was a battle for a podium, which he was going to win. And in the end, it became a battle for a win eventually.
“Yeah, we tried everything we could. But we know we’ve been struggling the last few races. And at the moment, Mercedes are a little bit quicker than us.”
Sainz has admitted that he elected to not put up a strong fight against Piastri in the closing stages as he acknowledged that he lacked the pace to resist the McLaren.
“I was P4 at the time, which was virtually P2,” he recalled regarding the moment the top two came to blows. “So I didn’t feel like it was a lot going on
“And then suddenly they told me on the radio at the end with Max and Lando, that made me feel like I was obviously P2.
“At the time, I felt like I was catching George a little bit, but I was just not quite quick enough to, I had too little laps left to go for it.
“And on the other hand, I had a very fast Oscar coming behind.
“Once I knew it was a podium, it was difficult to judge the level of risk that you can take, especially because Oscar was just quite a big step quicker than us this weekend.
“And yeah, it was almost impossible to keep him behind. So yeah, I had to kind of set up for the P2, P3 and live with it.”
Ferrari’s recent struggles continued as the team’s SF-24 once again lagged behind the competition with Sainz set to end behind one Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes.
Asked whether his third place showed Ferrari was back on track, Sainz answered: “I think if anything, it just proves that the last two weekends, they haven’t been easy.
“We’ve been always the first Ferrari finishing behind the first Mercedes. Even if you count Canada, you could argue those three weekends in a row.
“So I think Red Bull and McLaren were in a league of their own this weekend. Then there was a step, there was George and me battling for that P3, P4.
“And yeah, that was not the situation at the end of the year. So it shows that we need to work hard. We need to understand what’s happened the last couple of races.
“And once we understand it, hopefully already for Silverstone, we can bring a step and improve our performance.”
Sainz once more repeated that high-speed cornering is the outstanding weakness the Maranello-based squad must improve to get back on terms with its competitors.
“Well, I see the factory pushing flat out to understand the troubles that we’ve hit in the last couple of weekends and trying to bring already for Silverstone a package that allows us to perform a bit better in the high-speed corners because it’s clearly been our weakness,” he explained.
“Yesterday, Max was so much quicker through there. But not only Max, also Mercedes and McLaren were a clear step ahead of us in those type of corners.”
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