Photo by Emmanuele Ciancaglini/Ciancaphoto Studio/Getty Images
After a rough start, Sainz rebounded with his first podium of the season in the F1 Sprint race
At the start of Saturday’s Sprint Shootout at the Austrian Grand Prix, it looked as if Ferrari was in for another long afternoon.
While Charles Leclerc was struggling the wet conditions during SQ1, things were even worse for teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. The Ferrari driver radioed into his team right at the start of SQ1 that he had a problem with his brakes.
And he lingered on the track, waiting for a response.
Eventually Sainz returned to the garage,
He would have enough time for one push lap in SQ1 just to advance to SQ2, and he managed to make it through, eventually qualifying fifth for the Sprint race itself. Once the race began, Sainz was even more dialed in, eventually coming across the line third behind the Red Bull duo of Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez, for his first podium of the 2023 campaign.
Given how his day started, how did Sainz describe his first podium? Perfectly.
“Yeah, obviously happy to be here, third, especially given how the day started, that I couldn’t even do the laps at the beginning of Q1, that I had to do a bit of a crazy lap at the end of Q1 to go though only on one push-lap in mixed conditions,” said Sainz in the post-race press conferences.
The Ferrari driver noted that he has been comfortable in the car all weekend, and that is backed up by the results so far. Not only has he secured his first podium of the season with the Sprint race result, he is in good position to challenge for his second on Sunday, having qualified third for the Grand Prix.
“And since then, really I’ve felt really comfortable in the car. Also did a couple of good laps in Q3 on used tyres, on Medium tyres,” added Sainz. “Today just flowed nicely through the Sprint, did a decent start and then kept my pace, followed Checo, was trying some laps to get closer but like always, the dirty air and the graining with the Inters, didn’t allow me to put any more pressure than what I did – but at least the pace was good and I had a very good day.”
Ferrari brought some upgrades to Austria for the SF-23, and now that Sainz has had some time with the upgrades, he feels much better about where the team is, and where the car is.
“I don’t know how it will be tomorrow with the degradation, with the pace,” said Sainz on Saturday. “I hope the car feels as good as it’s felt in Qualifying, which would mean it would be a good race to try and finish in the podium with two cars tomorrow.”
“I felt comfortable all weekend. I did, as I said, some really good laps this morning and this put me on a very good state of mind and very good feeling with a car today after making some progress from yesterday,” added Sainz.
“Honestly, I think this year I’ve been quite close to what the car is capable of doing,” continued the Ferrari driver. “I know there’s been a lot of P5s, and a lot of jokes going around that I can only finish P5 for so many consecutive races, but I honestly believe there’s not much more we need this year in the first few races but I hope tomorrow there’s more than a P5 on the cards and I can also maximise it and get the second top three on the first proper top three of the season.”
