F1 News: Carlos Sainz Delivers Blow To Fans In Gloomy Ferrari Update
Carlos Sainz appeared slightly downbeaten during the Drivers' Press Conference for the Dutch Grand Prix today. The Spanish driver gave an honest overview of how the Ferrari team is doing going into the race weekend in Zandvoort.
The Maranello-based squad has struggled to get off the mark this season with their best result to date in 2023 is Charles Leclerc's second-place finish in the Austrian Grand Prix. The team is currently fourth in the constructors' standings with 191 points with Red Bull, Mercedes, and Aston Martin ahead of them.
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Sainz explained to the media that the team is aware of the main issue with the SF-23 but that it has become unpredictable. He explained:
"The core problem of the car, we do understand what it is. Since the first developments of the year, we are trying to get it better.
"The whole development programme has been focusing on improving that main weakness that we have. It's no secret that this year we've lost some consistency from the car.
"It's very difficult to predict which circuits we're going to be quick on and which we're not going to be quick. There's the wind sensitivity, there's the track temperature sensitivity that we have, which at the moment makes it a very picky car.
"The best example was the difference between Hungary and Spa. We expected Hungary to be a good weekend, we expected Spa to be a weaker one. Actually it was the opposite, which shows that there is maybe something intrinsic that we don't fully understand and we cannot predict very well."
Sainz went on to add that they are hopeful that the work they are putting in this season to understand and rectify these issues will pay off in 2024. He continued:
"We've done twelve, we still have ten to fully get to understand everything. This unpredictability, this lack of understanding is exactly what we are focusing on now to try and piece together everything. And this is where our focus is going to be this weekend and obviously, in the second half of the season.
"Every weekend in F1, FP2 we are trying something different to try and understand these regulations and try to see where we may be lacking compared to obviously the reference Red Bull and how we can make the 2024 car quicker. I think we're doing a pretty good job of trying completely different things and having different theories that we're putting together for next year's car. Hopefully next year it pays off."
