Carlos Sainz clueless about lack of pace at the 2023 F1 Azerbaijan GP qualifying

Carlos Sainz was unimpressed by his qualifying performance ahead of the Azerbaijan GP.

The Ferrari driver feels it wasn’t his best performance and he lost confidence with the car after he made mistakes during qualifying.

Asked about the car's performance after the qualifying session, Carlos Sainz spoke to media, including Sportskeeda, saying:

“Yeah specially sector 1 I was always tending to do mistakes but yeah honestly since the very first run of Fp 1, I was just struggling. Same car, same setup as Australia, for some reason I was just off, off the feeling, off with the balance, my own driving and I was just tending to struggle quite a bit."

"In the end, I put myself into a bit more struggle in Q1 and Q2 by doing mistakes and losing even more confidence with the car. I was trailing the whole day. Once second down in Q3, which accelerates the gap but I’m not happy about today.”

He added:

“I save the day with only one set in Q3 and the run we had done at the beginning of the Q3 without track evolution. To be starting P4 on Sunday is relatively with how bad the session was, good news. And now I will look into tomorrow, trying to make some steps with my driving with my feeling."

"Obviously because car is sent to Parc Ferme and if we find something we are not going to be able to change it. Let’s see what kind of weekend waits for me but at least tomorrow I’m going to do everything I can with my driving with my feeling with my car to try and improve it.”

While his teammate Charles Leclerc claimed pole position for the race, Carlos Sainz was unhappy qualifying fourth on the grid for the Azerbaijan main race. The Spanish driver claimed that their setup was similar to Australia where he was competitive and almost claimed a podium if it weren’t for the chaotic race and penalty.

He believes the mistakes he made and the feeling with the car wasn’t similar to Melbourne. The Spaniard felt his mistakes and off-track moments made him lose confidence as the session progressed.

Despite performing better in the final session of qualifying, he feels he will have to make the difference with his driving henceforth, as they will be unable to make any kind of setup changes on his car.

---

Carlos Sainz feels the Azerbaijan GP circuit has never suited him historically

Carlos Sainz believes the Baku street circuit has never been one of his strengths, unlike his teammate Leclerc, who claimed his third pole position in a row at this circuit.

But the Spaniard believes the Monegasque has always managed to be exceptionally competitive around this circuit and his qualifying result is positive news for the team.

Asked if Baku was one of those circuits that never worked for him in the past, Carlos Sainz replied:

“Yeah. Never as far as this weekend for sure but it hasn’t been an easy track for me in the past for sure. I think it’s also the best track for Charles. I think he always tends to do particularly good laps and particularly good around here."

"Congratulations, because putting the Ferrari back on pole, it is great news for the team and huge boost of motivation. We could already see some positive signs in Australia and without even bringing any upgrades here we manage to put it on pole. So happy days but homework to do for me.”

According to Carlos Sainz’ claims, Ferrari made changes to their car in Australia but did not bring any upgrades to Baku. The 28-year-old believes that he has his work cutout for the rest of the weekend when it comes to performance and is encouraged by his teammate's performance.