In a weekend in which he never got to grips with the car and the track, Sainz still managed to close in fifth position ahead of Hamilton and returning from Baku with 14 points in total. Nonetheless, Spanish he's not proud of his weekend.
Sainz's words
"The race was long for me, as could be seen from the outside. I didn't have a bad stint with the medium tyres, but when I put on the hard tyres, confidence dropped again and I had to make sure I didn't make any mistakes and bring home fifth place, which are good points for the team.".
“I checked Hamilton – continues the Spanish to the microphones of DAZN F1 – because pushing harder would have meant risking nothing because whoever was in front was far ahead. With the little confidence I had and the walls so close I didn't want to make any mistakes. I set myself the goal of not repeating the mistakes of the beginning of 2022 and this time at least I saved fifth place. It's not what I want or what I expect of myself.".
Leclerc's results have given the team confidence and now we fly to Miami with the intention of further improving. “We'll find what didn't work and in Miami I'll come back stronger. I think that Charles' pole position yesterday gave the team good sensations. It gives us the motivation to think we are going in the right direction from Australia, we mustn't forget that I had great race pace there and Charles also seems to have done very well this weekend.".
"Race pace continues to be our weak point – concludes Sainz – because it can't be that after one lap we take pole position with Charles and then in the race the Aston Martins chase us and beat me . We still have to improve there and I'm sure the team will continue to make small steps forward.".
