Carlos Sainz Clears Any High Expectations From Ferrari F1 for Hungary

Despite their recent struggles, Scuderia Ferrari displayed a solid performance at British Grand Prix. The Maranello-based team showed an impressive pace all weekend, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz crossing the checkered flag at P2 and P6, respectively.

Charles Leclerc led almost every lap of the race at Silverstone. And despite showing massive resilience, the Monegasque ended up losing the lead to Lewis Hamilton just three laps before the race ends.

Despite Ferrari winning the second podium of the season at Silverstone, Sainz has lowered his expectations for the next race at Hungary. The Spaniard believes the Maranello-based team will finish behind Mercedes and Red Bull.

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What did Carlos Sainz say?

“I don’t think it’s a spectacular circuit for us, but I think we have a good chance to be right behind Red Bull and Mercedes,” said Sainz in the post-race press conference at British GP.

Formula One F1 – Steiermark Grand Prix – Red Bull Ring, Styria, Austria – June 26, 2021. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. ahead of the Steiermark Grand Prix REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger.

“Downforce is key in Hungary and we’ve already seen on the medium tire at Silverstone that Lewis was faster. They and Red Bull should be ahead of us.” (Translated via Google Translate)

Slow pit stop hampered the race: Sainz

Before the pit stop, Carlos was running strong at P2 behind his teammate Leclerc. The former entered the pit lane on lap 29 and endured a slow 12.3-second pit stop because of a left-front tire problem, dropping him back behind Ricciardo at P6.

His pit stop was only a couple of seconds quicker than Hamilton‘s, who served a 10-second penalty in the pit lane.

As quoted by the official Formula 1 website, when asked if he was disappointed after the race, Sainz replied, “Yes, of course, when you have such a strong pace and you do fastest laps and you are basically as fast as we were today it’s obviously difficult to take.

Formula One F1 – British Grand Prix – Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, Britain – July 18, 2021. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. during the race REUTERS/Peter Cziborra.

“But considering that [on Lap 1 of the F1 Sprint] I was last, and I managed to finish P6 [in the Grand prix] with a very slow pit stop, it is still a positive result. I think the team has been great in pit stops this year and it’s the first mistake we do.” 

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Can Ferrari replicate their impressive performance at Hungary Grand Prix? Or will Sainz’s words turn out to be true? Let us know your predictions in the comments section below.

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