Carlos Sainz Jnr admitted it felt “extremely frustrating” to have dropped out of another race in the early stages due to his hydraulic failure in Baku.
The Ferrari driver has covered the fewest laps of any full-time driver so far this year, including Sebastian Vettel who missed the first two races of the season. He has retired within the first 10 laps of three races so far: Azerbaijan, Emilia-Romagna and Australia.“From my side it’s been extremely difficult to get any kind of momentum,” rued Sainz after his lap nine retirement on Sunday. “Every time I do a good race, the next race there’s something happening.
“2022 has been extremely frustrating on that side. But I’m still hoping that one day all this will finish and we start having a smoother time.”
He was joined in retirement by his team mate Charles Leclerc, who suffered a power unit failure before half-distance. Sainz said his failure came as a surprise to him.
“From my side this year we haven’t had any reliability issues,” he said. “It’s been unluckiness and things not going my way. But I see that Charles had a problem in Barcelona and another one here.”
Baku was “a difficult day for the team” said Sainz. “But I’m sure we will look into it and we will stay united and keep pushing. It’s still a long season ahead.”
Aside from the blow of their Baku double retirement, Sainz believes the team can be pleased with its start to the season.
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“It’s part of the experience and part of the process,” he said. “I think we’ve been quite solid as a team, honestly, this year. There’s been some niggles here and there but I think the team is doing a very good job. Yes, we’ve run into our first double reliability issue, but I think the team is doing a great job.
Red Bull finished first and second on Sunday, putting them 80 points clear of Ferrari in the constructors’ championship. But with 14 races remaining, Sainz is confident they can get back in the fight.
“I think we have a team to fight for the championship,” he said. “It is true that we are against the recent world champions and a great team like Red Bull. But Red Bull [didn’t finish with] both cars in Bahrain. So we just did the same here.
“It just shows that in 22-race season, these kind of things are going to happen once in a while. Wwe need to learn from it and make sure it doesn’t happen again like Red Bull seems to have solved their issues.
“It’s a tough race here. It was very warm, a demanding track on our car with the bouncing and everything so I’m sure it’s not easy.”
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Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
15th June 2022, 8:42
What a lucky guy! Carlos probably cannot believe he managed to get a multi-year extension to his Ferrari contract while he still appeared somewhat competitive.
Todfod (@todfod)
15th June 2022, 12:12
Agree. I think Ferrari are absolute masters at bad decisions, both on and off the track.
Regarding Sainz not being able to complete the race. I think he’s lucky that his car failed, otherwise he’d be finishing the race a minute away from Perez.
There are always a certain crop of midfield drivers who show promise in slower cars, but absolutely bomb when they’re in championship winning cars. Perez did strike me as one of those kind of drivers, but he is turning it around this year. Sainz.. is absolutely rubbish in a front running car.. but I just don’t see him turning it around anytime.
I think he’ll be lucky if Ferrari dont break his contract by the end of this season.
Cranberry
15th June 2022, 13:13
Who would Ferrari replace Sainz with? Ricciardo?
Sainz and Ricciardo both have switched teams alot in recent years and have not performed at the level they are capable of, especially Ricciardo in McLaren, but these two are still ace quality drivers IMO.
Ferrari and McLaren, despite their 2nd driver’s actual performance, have the best drivers available to them at this time. Whatever the problems Sainz and Ricciardo are having with their cars, their team needs to figure it out.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
15th June 2022, 19:45
Extremely frustrating to have you in f1.