Neither Ferrari driver could put a finger on why the car’s performance was not at the standard of their rivals during the wet running at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc came home fifth, improving one place on his qualifying position, but was over half a minute behind race winner Max Verstappen, who cut his way through the field to take victory from 17th.
While Leclerc’s weekend was forgettable, Sainz’s was miserable as he crashed out in both qualifying and the race before being hit with a stewards’ reprimand for dangerous driving as he tried to drive off in his stricken Ferrari despite marshals already being on the scene.
The outcome in Brazil was as gloomy as the weekend weather, especially considering Sainz’s victory in Mexico and Leclerc’s success in Austin at the other races during F1’s latest triple-header.
“I’ve always been a very strong driver in the wet but for some reason, ever since I’ve tried this car in the wet, I’ve never had a good feeling with it,” explained Sainz.
“I don’t know if we just don’t put energy into the tyres, we run it too stiff in the medium to high speed, or what it is. It is clear that it is very difficult and unpredictable to drive.
“I’m pleased that Charles managed to bring it home in P5. I heard he was also struggling, so a bit of a nightmare the whole race, but hopefully some dry races coming up and we will try to go for it.”
Leclerc was prepared to shoulder some of the blame for the poor performance but was pleased that his fifth place keeps Ferrari second in the constructors’ standings, where it sits 36 points behind leaders McLaren.
“Really not at all,” the Monegasque replied when asked if the car did not like the wet or intermediate tyre during the race.
“I think I'm partly to blame because obviously we decide the set-ups together with the team. I wanted to go in a direction, however it was the wrong one, for sure. The pace was just not there, whether it was in qualifying, where I think in qualifying we actually weren't too bad.
“With the new tyres, low fuel, you can extract more out of the car, but in the race, we were nowhere – and more than being nowhere, it was extremely difficult to drive, extremely difficult to not do any mistakes.
“At the end, looking at all this, the only thing we could be a little bit satisfied of is being in front of the two McLarens and to only lose four points in the constructors is big damage limitation on the weekend where they seem to be so strong.”
Ferrari has been in fine form of late and could still claim a first constructors’ crown since 2008 if they can reel in and pass McLaren in the closing weeks of the season – starting in Las Vegas later this month.
“We will be alive until the very end,” added Sainz. “Three weekends now coming up that are going to be important for the whole team and now we need to refocus, regroup and see how we can approach these last three races in the best possible way.”
