Carlos Sainz admitted that 2022 has been a "nightmare" for Ferrari after promising so much at the beginning of the season.
Things started well for Ferrari in general, with Charles Leclerc winning two of the first three races to set the early pace in the championship. But while the Monegasque was flying, Sainz had some difficulties adjusting to driving the F1-75.
By the time the Spaniard got to grips with the car, things started to go downhill for his team. A mixture of engine reliability problems, some poor strategy decisions and no small amount of bad luck derailed their title charge and left them a long way off runaway champions Max Verstappen and Red Bull.
Despite all those issues, there have still been some bright spots for Sainz. He secured the first win of his F1 career at the British Grand Prix, having qualified fastest, and has secured two more pole positions since – the latest coming just a couple of weeks ago in the USA.
Explaining his upturn in form, relative to his team-mate Leclerc, Sainz told reporters in Mexico: "I just know how to drive. I mean, it's instinctive. I'm not thinking about driving anymore.
"And you can see the lap times are coming a lot easier. And I'm back to a level that I should have been at the beginning of the year.
"Now that I'm at that level, our car is maybe not as good. It's been a nightmare of a season to be honest because of all these things; all the DNFS, being slow when the car was quick, and now I'm quick and we are not as quick as we used to be. So it's everything that has gone wrong."
Perhaps his own personal improvements, even in the face of a difficult few months for Ferrari in general, is why Sainz has managed to remain optimistic. He added: "This season has gone wrong, but the positive side is that I'm keeping my spirits up even on a horrible season or impossible to be more difficult season.
"And I'm still there with my engineers fighting, still finding lap time in this car. I think it could have been very easy to give up on it and let the year go away, but the pole in Austin and again, being quick out here today, I think it's a good sign for us."
