Carlos Sainz has admitted he’s “surprised” Ferrari remains in the Formula 1 Constructors’ title race after a difficult middle period in the 2024 campaign.
After wins at Australia and Monaco for Sainz and Charles Leclerc respectively, many wondered whether Ferrari could mount a consistent challenge to Red Bull.
Cue a torrid run of below-par results as Ferrari struggled to add performance to its car through a series of unsuccessful upgrades.
With all the talk focussing on McLaren’s assault upon Red Bull’s Constructors’ lead, which has come down to eight points amid the Milton Keynes-based squad’s struggles, Ferrari got itself back on track with a popular Leclerc win at Monza.
As it stands, Ferrari is just 39 points back from championship leaders Red Bull and Sainz credited the Scuderia persevering through its troubles to stay in the hunt.
“I am surprised, because I don’t know how many races there’s been between Monaco and Monza, but it’s one third of the season maybe,” the Spaniard said on Thursday ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix (via Motorsport.com).
“We had a strong first third, bad second third, and now we are entering the last third of the season. We’ve had a poor middle part of the season and we are still in the fight.”
Indeed, between Leclerc’s Monaco and Monza wins, Ferrari scored just three third-place finishes, but Sainz attributed those damage-limitation results to his team working hard on executing Grands Prix well.
“It shows how far this team has come in terms of executing well, managing to score points even when the car is not performing like it did at the beginning of the season or like it did in Monza,” Sainz said.
“And that’s kept us in the fight. I think the two drivers are also performing because I think we are both very consistent. We’re always next to each other, we’re always helping each other, we’re always scoring points, the two of us maximising the car.
“I think we are doing a solid year all together and this has kept us with good race management by the team and good race execution with the team and drivers in the fight in a difficult season. Let’s see if now we have that same performance as in Monza and Monaco and we can keep going for it.”
Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur outlined ahead of the summer break that “we have a good sequence of tracks for us with Monza, Baku, Singapore. These are good tracks for the characteristics of the car.”
With Monza living up to the billing, Sainz is taking matters “race by race” as he fears F1’s visit to Austin, Texas after Singapore could be somewhat of a reality check.
“Yeah, it gives us a good run but at the same time it’s maybe a fake one, because when you go back to Austin and the car is like it was in Zandvoort then you’re lacking,” he explained.
“I’m going to go race by race and just see where it takes us. When we are within a tenth of each other, it’s impossible to predict where you’re going to be. You’re going to be a tenth in front or a tenth behind.
“It’s impossible to know. So go race by race, trying to maximise those tracks that potentially seem to be a bit better for you. Try to execute a good weekend. The weekends that are going to be tougher and [we will] see where we are at the end of the year.”
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