“Never such a challenging year as 2022,” Carlos Sainz content after facing an extremely demanding F1 season


“Never such a challenging year as 2022,” Carlos Sainz content after facing an extremely demanding F1 season

Carlos Sainz

Carlos Sainz has dwelled on his 2022 F1 season and made it known that this year, he did the most learning since his debut year in the sport.

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Carlos Sainz joined Toro Rosso in the year 2015 to partner up with Max Verstappen, and when the latter made the step up to the Red Bull team, Sainz had no option but to look elsewhere for a competitive seat.

After leaving the Red Bull stable, the Spaniard managed solid seasons with Renault, and McLaren before making the switch to a high-profile team like Ferrari.

Moreover, to everyone’s surprise, the 28-year-old was able to outscore the prolific Charles Leclerc during his first season with the team.

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On the back of last year, Carlos Sainz came into the 2022 F1 season high on confidence, but his campaign got off to a tumultuous start as he struggled to keep pace with Leclerc in the initial few rounds, and on top of all this, he spun off at Albert park, and in Imola, he crashed with Daniel Ricciardo.

All the setbacks early on in the campaign left the Spaniard with a mountain to climb during the second leg of the 2022 F1 season.

Carlos Sainz’s take on his tough 2022 F1 season

Carlos Sainz
Carlos Sainz

Carlos Sainz was plagued with various problems during the first leg, however, as the season progressed, he showed steady consistency and was able to make a solid comeback.

He was recently asked to dwell on his campaign and while doing the same, Sainz added, “A lot, to be honest. It’s been a very challenging start to the season with me immediately on the back foot and heading into challenges that I probably didn’t expect to have.”

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But I’m honestly very proud, the way that I recovered the season, the way that I managed to stay motivated, even with all the ups and downs that I had, with all the setbacks that we had.

As a team, as an individual, with so many DNFs, we still managed to turn the season around and now I’m driving again at the level that I know I’m able to drive.”

Carlos Sainz
Carlos Sainz

I’m going to take the positives and keep that as a positive.

Considering how much of a bad start the Ferrari starlet got off to during the 2022 F1 season, he believes that it was only in his first F1 season that he did more learning than this year.

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While stressing about it, he added, “I think in that sense, it’s been the year that I’ve learned the most since 2015 –that was my first year in Formula 1.”

Then I had tougher and easier years, but never such a challenging year as 2022.

I found myself in a position where I was driving with this car, I was constantly off the pace in the first five, six races, and I had to fight a lot to change some things in my driving, some things on the car, try to get the car a bit closer to my liking.”

Carlos Sainz
Carlos Sainz

Also, [I had to] stop having some muscle memory on the way I drive and reset a bit the way I was driving, and it took a long time.”

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But then, as soon as it happened, I felt like I had done a big step forward as a driver in my skills, in my development, and I had learned a load.

Carlos Sainz has given an in-detail analysis of his 2022 F1 campaign and looking at some of the things that he has said, he is very much on point, in believing, that he did a lot of learning this year.

The new regulations that kicked into the sport this year forced everyone to make adjustments in their way of doing things, and the same was the case for Sainz.

After struggling a bit initially with the regulations, the 28-year-old, after a point, was finally able to drive the way he wanted and was able to stay close to Charles Leclerc.

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Keeping all things in perspective, it is quite safe to say that Carlos Sainz did a tremendous recovery job during the 2022 F1 season, and for that, he deserves huge applause.

Carlos Sainz F1
Carlos Sainz

Carlos Sainz was able able to showcase his mettle as a racing driver during a tough F1 campaign, and, this is what the fans crave.

This year’s F1 season was a rollercoaster ride for Carlos Sainz and Ferrari, but the next opportunity to have a shot at the Championship is just a few months away.

Ferrari is a huge brand, and looking at how tipsy and turvy the 2022 campaign turned out for the team, it is going to be fascinating to see what they would come up with next year.

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Would they be able to have a real go at the championship during the 2023 F1 season?