Race day at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix proved to be a difficult campaign for Scuderia Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who finished in sixth place, dropping back two positions from his grid slot of fourth.
Sainz said that the team’s lack of race pace was unexpected, with previous sessions and a relatively strong qualifying indicating otherwise. Paired with the unfortunate timing of the safety car that was brought out to retrieve Lance Stroll’s car, Sainz would not be able to improve from sixth by the checkered flag.
“It was a tough Sunday. Going into the race and looking at the sessions over the weekend, we were expecting a better race pace.”
In spite of the underwhelming result at the second round, Sainz remains optimistic about the team’s ability to move forward and make the adjustments necessary to improve SF-23’s competitive pace.
“We have work to do and we know the car is not where we want it to be at the moment. However, we will keep pushing and I am fully confident we can improve the situation.”
“There wasn’t much more we could have extracted today.” – Charles Leclerc
Team-mate Charles Leclerc expressed a similar sentiment, having struggled to catch competitors ahead after the safety car. He finished the race in seventh, just behind Sainz, after starting in twelfth place due to a grid penalty.
Leclerc felt he did all he could from his suboptimal grid position, having climbed up to sixth place by lap thirteen on his initial set of soft tyres– a competitive start to the race. Unfortunately, the back half of the race was a different story, with the safety car throwing off his strategy and his inability to find much pace in the hard compound.
With much of the Grand Prix spent in a “train” of cars, Leclerc said that improving race pace will be a priority as the team turns its attention to the Australian Grand Prix.
“There wasn’t much more we could have extracted today. Our first stint on the Softs was pretty strong and I could push, making up some positions. Just after we switched to Hards, the Safety Car came out so unfortunately we didn’t gain an advantage there.”
“Our pace was not as good as we expected on the Hards and the rest of the race was spent in a train with Carlos. We have work to do on our race pace and will push to come back stronger in Australia.”
