Ferrari lacked a lot of pace at the Dutch Grand Prix. However, Carlos Sainz managed to secure fifth position in a dramatic race.
A lacklustre performance characterised The Prancing Horse’s performance this weekend; still, the Spanish driver managed to complete a solid race in changing conditions. Sainz admitted that the team’s goal ahead of the race was to maximise their result, saying:
“We knew, getting into the race and yesterday’s quali, that we’re just lacking this weekend, and we had to focus on maximising our good, decent, result today.
“Even in the last stint when we knew we had one last set of inters left to put on the last laps and the tyres were destroyed from yesterday’s quali, but I still managed to keep Hamilton behind and bring home a P5 that was honestly not in the cards.”
Due to his impressive performance, Sainz looked to be in contention for a podium finish; he pointed out that their pace was slower than the teams around them, adding:
“At some point, it looked like we were in a fight for the podium, but in reality is, when the race was settled when you look at our pace, we were just nowhere in terms of pace.
“We managed to execute a really good race; we were fighting the whole race with people not in our pace, not in our race, we were fighting with cars a lot quicker than us; we have to be happy and proud of a well-executed P5, obviously not happy with the feeling of the car, and how much I struggled out there today.
“Not really confident, especially when we took out the blankets, and I looked at the state of the tyres; I was going to do seven laps [in]; I knew I was going to be very, very slow in the next laps.”
Throughout the season, the SF-23 has been unpredictable in terms of it’s performance; earlier in the weekend, Sainz admitted that there was something “intrinsically wrong” with the car that the team is yet to understand.
He was about his stellar showing throughout the season; he affirmed that the Dutch Grand Prix was one of his “best drives this season”.
“Especially this season, one of the best (..) there is something that we are struggling a lot with, but it has to be one of my best drives this season.
“At some point, I thought he was going to pass me, but I put the car in the right place all the time(..) That’s why P5, even with the extra tension at the end, even better.”
