Sainz, bittersweet: Starts 1st but believes Verstappen will come

Carlos Sainz He is a very transparent pilot. When he’s happy, it shows. And when he is worried about something, more. You can’t hide it. Under normal conditions, achieving the goal of overtaking Pérez in qualifying in Belgium and thus securing the first starting position for this Sunday at Spa is reason enough to smile. But Carlos was happier, with the fly behind his ear. I did not understand that Max Verstappen was the fastest in qualifying with an advantage of 0″632 on the Spaniard, a margin that was repeated in Free Practice 2 and 3. Red Bull is very fast, especially Max’s, and for this reason, He knows that victory, despite starting first and Verstappen being far behind (15th), will be very difficult.

Firstly, the Spaniard knows that it is difficult to defend against ‘Checo’ Pérez at the start, on the first long straight after Eau Rouge and the Raidillon or on the back straight. The car’s higher top speed energy intake can make a difference from the start, and when the DRS can be activated as well. “The difficult thing is to keep Checo behind at the top speed that Red Bull has. That’s where I will be most vulnerable. Because I think later in the race we can go well”, he pointed out. But he wants to make it clear that those who think that race will be a matter of two, are very wrong.

“A fight between me and Checo? Nope. Especially with Max’s speed. As soon as there is a safety car that allows him to get close, or even at the speed he has, in 44 laps I think he can come back. He’s done it before. In the first and second round it will be a direct fight against ‘Checo’ and the Mercedes if they have the pace of the race, but we will try to open the difference and gap. But I wouldn’t rule out that it reaches the top,” said the native of Madrid at the FIA ​​press conference. “Can Max win? I think. If I did that lap I would also have confidence. If there is a security car or something happens, he will make it”.

“If I had signed a clean lap it wouldn’t have been faster. The first lap of Q3 was pretty clean. Obviously with Charles’ slipstream. In turns 5, 6 and 7 I didn’t brake as well as I should have and I lost a bit there. But there is no more than one tenth. And when you see the difference with Max, ask yourself. How much is it, by the way? 8 tenths… and it’s been like that all weekend. In Free Practice 2 and 3 taken he already has half a second on us. We have homework to do and I think in the race we can be more competitive”.

Mission accomplished, but…

He repeated the same idea on ‘DAZN F1’. “The goal was achieved, to beat Checo in qualifying: It was not easy to beat a Red Bull in qualifying because they were faster this weekend. So the goal was achieved starting from the pole. But what surprised me the most was the difference with Verstappen. All of a sudden they were giving us more than half a second per lap, and we didn’t really know why. And it leaves us with a bit of a bitter taste and looking at the race with a bit of respect, because they were faster than us this weekend and we need to know why.

“I think if Verstappen keeps doing laps like today and keeps putting more than half a second on us every lap or 8 tenths, the simulation says it’s coming. And as soon as there’s a ‘Safety Car’, it can it comes because it compresses the whole grid again. But let’s see. I think in the race we’ll be faster.”

In fact, that’s why Carlos is more optimistic. This Sunday the temperature will rise and Ferrari could benefit. Asphalt conditions may be different and things may change.

“In terms of sensations, it wasn’t bad. We didn’t have a big balance problem this weekend, we just had a deficit with Max’s Red Bull, which surprised me because we’ve been fighting for pole all year. I don’t know if it’s the temperature or the efficiency of their car, but they have a pretty significant margin over us. Despite everything, we had a good ‘qualy’ as a team and achieved a good pole for tomorrow. And we will try to win from there”, he said at a press conference.