"Car was a bit trickier to drive"- Carlos Sainz reacts after Ferrari's poor show at 2022 F1 Mexican GP qualifying
Carlos Sainz has revealed that the reason why Ferrari were out of pace is because the car was a little different to drive, further adding that the car was suffering on the kerbs.
"I must say the car was a bit trickier to drive than I expected, or trickier to drive compared to other weekends, and we need to find out why."
Ferrari had a tough time during the Mexican Grand Prix. The duo of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc could only finish at P5 and P6 in the race. However, the troubles started in the qualifying session itself.
The cars were not competitive enough in front of both Mercedes and Red Bull, and hence their qualifying positions were compromised. They could only qualify for P5 and P7. Charles Leclerc was even out-qualified by Valtteri Bottas in the Alfa Romeo.
watching the race as a Ferrari fan https://t.co/RQkPOHzdyL
Many teams' performances were being affected by the low density of air due to the high altitude of the track, thus producing less drag even for the cars that were running a high downforce setup. However, Sainz revealed that not the altitude but the ride height of the car had affected their performance.
“The altitude shouldn’t affect us. It should be more the ride and how we were on the kerbs. Today we were suffering out there.”
He stated that both the drivers were struggling to drive the cars on the kerbs, which was evident from Charles Leclerc's crash in FP2.
“We were fighting it a bit too much. I must say the car was really difficult to drive over the kerbs and bumps, which meant it was very difficult to put a lap together."
Carlos Sainz believes that his sector timings were competitive
Carlos Sainz spoke about the sector timings he had during the qualifying laps. He believes that his fastest timings were competitive enough to finish in the top 3, however, the overall driveability of the car affected their performance.
“I think if I put my sectors together, the performance was there to be in the top three with a 1:18.0. But when the car is so tricky around here with the little grip there is, to put that lap together is very difficult."
Ferrari also had a compromised result in the race. Although Leclerc was able to overtake Bottas after the race started, it was the final result for the duo. Even after pitstops and possible strategies, Ferrari were nowhere even close to a top-three finish. Carlos Sainz finished P5 and Charles Leclerc finished P6, which gave Sergio Perez the lead on the second position in the championship by 5 points.