Carlos Sainz will start Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix race from P7, six places behind his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc who inherited pole position following Red Bull’s Max Verstappen’s 10-place grid penalty.
Speaking after Saturday’s qualifying session, Sainz described it as “strong” but admitted that he had struggled at the end of Q3 when it mattered most as he had difficulties with tyre warm-up, and felt a complete lack of grip.
The 29-year-old was P5 in Q1, backing it up with 4th in Q2, ahead of tomorrow’s polesitter and teammate Charles Leclerc in both segements.
“Yeah, I only had one tricky run which was a Q3 run, two run, the one that counts. The rest of the qualifying I was very strong, very comfortable with the car, putting together some really good laps.
“But for some reason in the last set of tyres that we went new, I struggled a lot with the warm-up, with the grip and just couldn’t put a lap together.
“So yeah, I’ll need to go back, sit down with my engineers and see what we could have done better in that last run.
The Spaniard expressed that while he believed a higher starting position would have improved his chances of securing a top-three finish tomorrow, or even potentially a win if everything went absolutely perfectly, P7 leaves him with a lot of work to do in the race.
While he acknowledged that this was not likely to be easy, he stated that he and his team would “give it our best shot.”
“Yeah, at the same time, we have cars in front of us that are the same pace or quicker than us with the McLarens, the Red Bull or Mercedes.
“I think that if we would be starting ahead of them, there would be a strong chance of holding on to a podium, or if Max [Verstappen] doesn’t make it through [the] field, maybe a win.
“But unfortunately, we are P7 tomorrow which means [that] we’re going to be the ones having to recover, which will not be easy, but we will give it our best shot.”
When asked about his expectations for the race in the predicted drier conditions, the Ferrari driver says the fight will be with Mercedes as Red Bull and McLaren look a step clear of them.
“I think, from what we saw in practice, it was Red Bull and McLaren a step ahead, and then Ferrari and Mercedes. And McLaren in particular [was] very strong, something like three- or four-tenths to the rest of the field almost. Let’s see how that translates into a race.”
Sainz also commented on the potential for overtaking at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, stating that a “good tyre delta” was required and admitting that overtaking around the circuit was not as easy as typically reported.
“You need good tyre delta here to overtake. It’s not that easy to overtake, and it’s going to be an interesting race to see if overtaking is as easy as you guys think it is.”
The Ferrari driver was also asked about the SF-24’s “bouncing issues” which he and teammate Charles Leclerc had suggested would be more evident during the Belgium Grand Prix.
While Sainz stated that the weather conditions and limited run time experienced on Saturday had disguised some of the problem, he acknowledged that the problem had been obvious during Friday’s free practice session, especially where the SF-24’s performance was compared to that of Verstappen’s RB20 in the very fast Pouhon corner.
“We haven’t had a Q3, run 2, all-out, low-fuel situation, but yeah, I think [that] you could see yesterday how Max can go flat through Pouhon and nearly the rest of the field, or us in particular, we have to lift quite a lot so, it’s not on holidays.”
Sainz also confirmed that he was running the floor that he had in Hungary, but when asked whether this had solved the porpoising issue, he confirmed that is still work in progress.
“No no, still work to do, but it will come later in the season.”
The Ferrari driver was questioned further on his expectations for Sunday’s race. He stated that it was difficult to predict how Ferrari would perform as it was tricky to guess the situations that would be experienced during the race because of graining and some unknowns on the hard tyre.
“Realistic… I think anything can happen around Spa given the graining and the situations that we’re facing the weekends that are very weird with the tyres – the soft, the medium – all graining. The hard is completely unknown for us.
“So, I think anything can happen, but at the same time, a top five, top three could be on the cards if we do everything perfect.”
He added that he was not likely to be racing against either Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri in dry conditions due to them starting ahead of him and having a faster pace.
“Given dry pace, no, because they start ahead of me, and they are quicker. If I would be starting ahead of them, I think [that] I would be racing them for sure because track position is key, but starting behind them, it will be tricky to go and get them.”
