Carlos Sainz has admitted that this weekend’s United States Grand Prix will determine whether Ferrari has a shot at claiming the Formula 1 Constructors’ title in 2024.
Ferrari heads into the remaining six rounds third in the Constructors’ Championship – 34 points behind Red Bull, but a substantial 75 points down on leaders McLaren.
The Italian marque’s dwindling title prospects endured a blow at the previous round in Singapore as a wretched qualifying session thwarted both drivers’ win chances.
However, Ferrari at least derived encouragement from another competitive showing pace-wise through the upgrades that helped Charles Leclerc to triumph at Monza.
But while it appears to have got back on track with the SF-24, Ferrari has been reluctant to state that it has banished the bouncing problem that blighted its campaign.
Sainz has agreed with Leclerc that the return to a conventional venue with the Circuit of the Americas will show how much Ferrari has improved upon its weaknesses.
“I think the more tracks that we’ve done since Monza, the more confident we are that the upgrades that we brought to the car start to work pretty much everywhere.
“But for me, I always said, no, with the last three races, I said, until we don’t go to Austin and we try them in a normal track, we will not be able to measure how much we’ve actually improved in tracks like Zandvoort, Spa, where we last struggled a bit more.
“So I think this will be the most important test so far for us to see whether all these upgrades that we brought in the past are working in the right direction for more of a normal kind of track like we see here in Austin.”
Ferrari title hopes hinge on strong COTA showing
The Spaniard has claimed that Ferrari’s slim championship ambitions this term will rest on how it stacks up versus both McLaren and Red Bull in Austin this weekend.
“I think a lot of our belief in the Constructors’ title will come over the next couple of races because I think if from here to the end all the races would be Singapores, Bakus and Monzas, we would believe that we can do it,” Sainz expressed.
“If in Austin, Mexico, Brazil that are more standard tracks, we see ourselves falling back a bit and being not so performing, like we were in Zandvoort or Spa, then obviously our belief goes down. So it’s a lot trying to assess.
“We are coming back to normal tracks with long, combined corners, high-speed corners.
“Let’s see where we are now in these kind of tracks and see if we can still fight like we did in Singapore and Baku and Monza.
“I think the others have taken this three-week break opportunity to bring upgrades to the car.
“Obviously, we haven’t stood still and we still try to improve every single area, but it sounds like there’s going to be a couple of teams maybe bringing the last upgrade and it could change a bit the pecking order. That’s why I think it’s important to reassess from now on.”
READ MORE: Charles Leclerc: COTA will show if Ferrari has taken ‘right direction’ with F1 upgrades
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