F1 Saudi Arabian GP: Carlos Sainz thinks he would start the race in P2 if not for a particular problem

Carlos Sainz explains his struggles throughout qualifying, which ultimately led to him ending up 5 tenths behind his teammate, Charles Leclerc.

F1 Saudi Arabian GP: Carlos Sainz thinks he would start the race in P2 if not for a particular problem

Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari SF-23 during the 2023 Saudi Arabian GP qualifying session

Bahrain was a bit of a disaster for Ferrari, but everyone expected them to be better coming into Jeddah. There, the rough track surface definitely did not help their tire degradation problems. Plus, of course, there was Charles Leclerc’s retirement with a control electronics issue and the generally disappointing race pace. Towards the end of the race, Carlos Sainz was overtaken by Fernando Alonso.

The ‘Jeddah Corniche Circuit’ was expected to better fit the characteristics of the SF-23, and so, it was predicted that Ferrari will be closer to Red Bull than in Bahrain. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case here, at least not by much. While Leclerc put his car P2, some +0.155 behind the man on pole, Sergio Perez, Sainz didn’t perform nearly as well, and finished over 5 tenths behind his teammate, in P5, behind Alonso and even George Russell.

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The Spaniard had been struggling, fighting the car almost throughout qualifying, and that certainly did not help him. Speaking to Autosport, when asked about his qualifying deficit, he said: “In FP3 I was feeling OK and I had a decent feeling with the car. But for some reason sector one was a main, big weakness for me today. I couldn’t get the tyres to give me the feeling to push in Turn 1/2 and the high-speed, and every time I was pushing a bit much I was snapping and having big moments.”

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If his sector one problem doesn’t happen during the race, Sainz thinks he can ‘have a good day’. The Ferrari driver said: “So in the end, I was three or four tenths off – which is a lot for one sector – so there’s clearly something there that I didn’t understand, or didn’t put together. I was playing a lot with prep laps, out-laps, and never switched on the tires for sector one. Sector two and three I was actually OK, so without this problem tomorrow I think we could have a good day.”

Read More: “I’m obviously worried,” Carlos Sainz on Ferrari’s reliability ahead of the Saudi Arabian GP

Carlos Sainz: Charles Leclerc’s strong qualifying pace “very good news” for Ferrari

Carlos Sainz
Carlos Sainz

Even Charles Leclerc’s result is not necessarily representative, as Red Bull only had one car in Q3: Max Verstappen had been forced to retire from the session because of a suspected driveshaft issue. The Dutchman was the favorite and looked pretty dominant during the weekend, so it’s possible that he would have had the upper hand on his teammate. Even Sergio Perez could have stretched his advantage if he had truly went for his final Q3 run.

Nevertheless, the Monegasque’s pace is clearly good (or at least, better) news for Ferrari, and Carlos Sainz agrees. He said: “Yeah, it’s very good news. It’s still not where we want to be because we would like to be P1 and P2, it still shows that we have a few weaknesses here and there. But also Max [Verstappen] wasn’t in the fight. I still think we can have a strong race day tomorrow, and go from there. I think we have the potential, I think the race pace should be better.”

He also thinks that he could’ve started the race in P2 on a “clean day”, and that he can target a podium for the race. While Sainz will start P4, his teammate will be P12 and Verstappen P15. It’ll be interesting to see how far the other two can climb up, considering it’s not very easy to overtake in Jeddah. For Sainz, his main competitors for the race, at this stage, are Fernando Alonso, George Russell, and Lance Stroll, with an outside shot at Perez.

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