Although Carlos Sainz described his P3 qualifying finish as an “improvement” after struggling with the car throughout the weekend, he expressed some disappointment with not being able to fight for pole position.
He did, however, acknowledge the “outstanding” performance of his teammate, Charles Leclerc, who he said had been able to “extract the most” out of the car which had been “amazing all weekend”.
“Yeah, I think overall, it was an improvement for me. I’ve been struggling all weekend with confidence and feeling with the car. So overall, to step it up and be P3 was a step forward.
“Obviously not entirely happy because I wish I could have been fighting for pole position. But the truth is that Charles has been doing an outstanding job. The car has been amazing all weekend and he managed to extract the most out of it. And yeah, I’m happy for him.”
The Spanish driver stated that he would “definitely” be able to compete with the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, as, despite struggling on the short runs, he had performed well on the long runs on Friday.
He said that he was confident that he would have a good race pace tomorrow.
Sainz added that Ferrari would give the race their best shot but admitted that the priority would be the win with Leclerc.
“Yeah, definitely. Yesterday, I looked very quick on the long run, so for some reason, this weekend, I’ve been struggling on the short runs, and the long run seemed much better, which is something we will need to look into, but I’m confident that tomorrow the pace in the long run will be good.
“It’s just a matter of track position here, and we’ve lost it with not a great quali position. But, you know, it’s Monaco. Anything can happen, like always, and we will give it our best shot, but the priority will be to win with Charles tomorrow.”
During the post-qualifying press-conference, Sainz was also asked to summarise his performance over the session.
The 3-time Grand Prix winner admitted again that he had struggled through the practice sessions where he had been missing around half a second to Leclerc consistently.
Sainz added that while he had improved for qualifying and had felt better during those laps, he had still been lacking those last couple of tenths. He reiterated his pride in his teammate’s P1 finish, and in Ferrari’s overall performance, despite the disappointment of his own.
“Well, just summing up the weekend in general, it’s been a bit of a struggle for me right from the beginning. I haven’t been as confident as I normally am around Monaco, and I haven’t been at my best.
“Luckily we stepped it up for quali and in quali I was feeling one step better. Unfortunately, it was a bit too late, and I was still lacking those last couple of tenths from confidence.”
“Anyway, very happy to see Charles putting it on pole and the team having such a strong car around Monaco and being in a position to win the race with Charles tomorrow.
“Overall, I think I’m very happy for the team. A bit unfortunate that the weekend that I’ve struggled the most with the car has to be in Monaco, where qualifying is so important.”
When asked whether there had been issues with the car, Sainz replied, “Just a lack of confidence.”
He reiterated P2-finisher Oscar Piastri’s earlier claim that the Monaco track required a lot of commitment adding that while a lack of confidence around another tract would result in a deficit of “half a tenth to a tenth” of commitment, in Monaco, the deficit could be as much as “two or three tenths”.
He added that it was not usual for him to struggle around Monaco, as he had previously felt “really confident” around the circuit and stated that he and his team would have to examine that.
“Like Oscar [Piastri] was saying, you need a lot of commitment around here, and maybe this lack of confidence around another track would be half a tenth to a tenth of commitment. In Monaco [it] means it’s two or three tenths.
“Luckily for quali, as I said, I stepped it up and I was a bit closer but there were stages of the weekend that I was really, really lacking, really struggling, which is a bit of a new thing for me around Monaco because I’ve normally felt really comfortable around here.
“So, something we will have to look into. but yeah, keeping the positives, we managed to save the weekend with a decent couple of laps in Q3, and we will go from there tomorrow.”
The Ferrari driver was pressed further on his lack of confidence during the weekend.
When asked what the car has been doing to prevent him from building the confidence that he needed, Sainz responded that there had been some inconsistency, with him “losing the rear” in places that he had not expected to lose it. However, he highlighted that he had been most affected by his repeated near-miss incidents with the walls.
“Just a bit of inconsistency. I’ve had a lot of moments in practice, and when you have so many moments of nearly touching the wall, nearly having a session over when you’re so close to the walls, this immediately takes away confidence.
“And I’ve had a lot of those during the practice, and it meant that for some reason I was just lacking confidence from then onwards.”
“But, yeah, just losing the rear in places where you don’t expect to lose it and then never getting quite close to the walls as I wish, because I had to leave myself a bit of margin in case the rear was snapping on me.
“So, yeah, as I said, not ideal, but we managed to save it.”
Sainz was also questioned on his earlier statement about his desire to see his teammate win Sunday’s race. The Spaniard said that the team would need to do “every single bit possible” to help Leclerc achieve the win and reiterated that his teammate had had a “particularly strong weekend”.
“We will see what we can do at the start, what we can do with strategy in order to do every single bit possible to help Charles to go and get that win. He’s been driving amazing all weekend.
“I think part of that delta comes from Charles also being super committed and having a particularly strong weekend. This weekend I think he’s been on it since FP1 and he’s been extremely quick.”
