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Ferrari's Carlos Sainz was disappointed with his entire weekend after a steering wheel issue caused a retirement at the 2022 F1 Australian GP. Speaking after the race, the Spanish driver revealed that the scarlet squad was not perfect as a team at the Albert Park race weekend.
Highlighting the pitfalls in terms of teamwork, the Ferrari driver said:
“So clearly not perfect, I haven’t been perfect this weekend. We haven’t been perfect as a team clearly and we need to analyse what we did wrong and see if we can come back better.”
Although his teammate Charles Leclerc won the race in Australia by dominating the weekend, the Spaniard’s fortune in the race was a contrast. The Ferrari driver believes the collective effort fell short when it came to delivering a top result as a team. Sainz, however, believes it is critically important to analyze the technical issues with his car to ensure top finishes in future results.
Pointing out the reason behind his retirement, Carlos Sainz said:
“We had a problem with the steering wheel, similar problem to yesterday. There were a few buttons that were not working. We had to change the steering wheel and it meant that steering wheel was not well-positioned for the start. We were anti-stalling in both starts because of the clutch and torque. Because of that I was obviously on the back-foot and I tried to make up the positions on the first three laps and I clearly made a mistake when the tyre was probably not ready to start overtaking. I missed out the grip and I made a mistake which cost me the retirement.”
The former McLaren driver revealed that an issue with his steering wheel caused him to retire. According to the Ferrari driver, the new steering wheel that was replaced in his car ahead of the race was not positioned correctly and compromised his race. He also admitted making a mistake on the opening lap when he tried overtaking when his tires were not in the optimum window.
Carlos Sainz beached his Ferrari on the opening lap of the race by going off-track after getting caught in a tangle with other drivers while trying to overtake them.
Carlos Sainz believes the worst result for his car in Australia would have been a fourth place
The Ferrari driver revealed his car had enough pace to finish fourth in a worst-case scenario had he completed the race. Disappointed with the retirement, Carlos Sainz believes such scenarios need to be avoided in the hunt for wins in the future.
Stressing the need for perfect teamwork in the future, Sainz said:
“This car in worse possible scenario today was to do top 4. If I could come back without the issues of yesterday without the issues of today, we should have been in the fight for the win. So to go away with zero points is very disappointing. As I said we need to be more perfect as a team and this weekend we clearly we haven’t been.”
The current result has dropped Sainz to third place in the championship standings, while Mercedes’ George Russell is second. The gap in points between Sainz and Leclerc is 38 points after three race weekends.
