Sainz: “I have the ambition of the title in 2023”

Before going to the official press conference of F1 Brazilian GPlast Thursday Carlos Sainz had an appointment with Ferrari hospitality. He was just in time. He did it with a smile despite the many tasks and commitments still waiting and wanted to explain the long and difficult process he had to face this year behind his Ferrari. He put on his headphones and greeted Mundo Deportivo from the other side of the screen.. A conversation began in which the Spaniard opened up again, speaking clearly about the long and difficult path he had to face this year, the pressure and comments he had to listen to and his ability to change course. the hard way. If Carlos has one thing, regardless of his speed, it’s that not hiding. Face things head on, both when they are good and bad. He did it again with a introspective journey in this conversation that ended the illusion that a course 2023 will wake you up where he wants to take the definitive step in his career.

Hi Carlos. Thank you for attending Mundo Deportivo. How does this happen?

Yours. Everything is good thanks.

In this season he achieved his first pole positions and his first win. But at the same time, he suffered in adapting to the new 2022 car, with new regulations that did not suit his driving style, and in the second part of this course he showed himself to be comfortable with the car. How do you feel this 2022 season?

I have mixed feelings. Obviously, it was the first year where you got your first victory, your first pole positions and the first season where you fought for victories and podiums in almost every race. It was a joy and a strange sensation. So, let’s say that what I take away from this year should be positive feelings. (He looks to the side, through the hospitality glass. He stops speaking and laughs).

What’s happening?

Ricciardo is here giving the sack… (laughs) he’s taking a picture of me… (he looks at the screen and goes back to his speech) But it’s true that at the beginning of the season there were difficult moments. Both at the beginning of the season and with the amount of retirements I had, especially in the first laps when I had to do a lot of laps in the car. That hurts. And then, that the fight for the World Cup escaped many in the first races. But hey, I will take the positive, which is that I have improved a lot during the year, I am getting comfortable with the car and I have returned it (the situation). The important thing is that I was able to turn around a season that started very badly.

In sport, the mental aspect was once a taboo subject that is now increasingly emphasized and talked about by athletes. Has the year 2022 been the hardest for you on a mental level? How did you compete handle that pressure and come out early?

Yes. I am sure that on a mental level it will be the most difficult year of my career because there are expectations, especially the ones I set myself, that if I have a competitive car to fight for the World Cup and win races , I believed I was going there. But unfortunately I found myself in a car that in the first races I did not like him, a very different car from last year, a car in which I was not comfortable. And that put me, let’s say, on alert that I needed to change some things about my driving and the car itself to try to bring it a little more out of my comfort zone and into my style.

It is a complex process…

I had to go out of my comfort zone exactly, I had to work on things that I had never done before (with his car and style), and well, little by little, making many mistakes in the direction. to find out what didn’t work and then try again other things that suddenly worked, which gave me the opportunity to improve a lot as a driver, to expand my range of driving styles and ways of driving, to to know how to set up the car a little more to my liking, to know myself better, to know what I like. All this gave me the opportunity in that sense to improve a lot as a driver.

Continuing with that mental aspect, with that difficult process, many other athletes have worked or worked with a ‘coach’ to train their minds, as Rosberg did in his time to beat Hamilton. Did you work in that sense as well?

The ‘coach’ thing is something I’ve been using for I think 9 years in my sports career. It’s not something I use methodically, meaning I don’t use it every week. It’s something I use simply when I see I need it, when I see I need it. I think I know myself very well and that lets me know when I need support and when I’m okay with myself or I feel like I have the key to figure out the next step.

Those words from the press and fans and his good end to the year give you more energy, desire, desire to redeem yourself to come and say: ‘Look, here is Sainz, a champion who driver’?

Actually no. Because I don’t have, let’s say, the feeling that I have to take revenge on anything or prove anything to anyone. I know what I can do and I know that when I’m comfortable and I get in the car fast I know I’m going to get up there. The last races of this season we show and I don’t feel the need to take revenge on anyone or what they said and so on. i go to me You know in that sense I have things pretty clear and I want to do my business.

In the second part of the season we saw him with a lot of confidence and speed in a lap and in the race. Starting from the same regulatory base for 2023, could it be a good starting point to fight for the title of F1 2023 champion?

Yes. Mainly, I think since the middle of the season I’ve been very fast in a lap. Regarding the race pace, there are still things to improve for me and for the team, because we were not as strong in the race as we were after one lap. But next year it will be a new car again, where we will try to improve his weaknesses and my weaknesses in that car and we will try to be at the front from the start. More than anything, I want to have a first half of the season that allows me to stay in the fight. I already know that my second half of the year is usually strong, so what we see at the end of this year is a good sign and I hope that I can start from this base or better next year.

In other words, now that the word ‘Plan’ is in fashion, we can say that Carlos Sainz has a clear plan for 2023…

(laughs) Yeah, sure.

If Alonso has ‘The Plan’, or now ‘The Mission’ for 2023, what does Carlos Sainz have? And what should be improved for next year?

What I have is a very high and clear ambition to one day be world champion, if possible, with Ferrari, and if possible, in 2023 or if not in 2024, because I still have two years in my contract to try. I think I was the first to be very critical of myself, I know the things I should improve and the things I will do for next year, but I also want to keep them to myself instead of go saying out Both my advantages and my weaknesses. The truth is that I have ambition, I want, above all, I consider that now I am probably in the sweetest moment of my sports career, at 28 years old and with a lot of time ahead of me. But it is the, ambition, desire and patience that I also need to have this year.

Shall we call it ‘The Target’?”

(laughs) Call it what you want. I’m not much for objectives, plans and so on either… (added laughter).

Thank you very much for your time

A hug