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Carlos Sainz believes Ferrari could have won the 2022 Italian GP, but his penalties and grid position made it difficult to pressurize Max Verstappen during the race. The Spanish driver felt both Ferrari drivers could have been in the top two if it weren’t for his engine penalties.
Explaining the Italian GP weekend to the on-site media after the race, the Ferrari driver said:
“If I wouldn’t have had a penalty, with both cars up there, we could have put Max under a lot of pressure. Unfortunately I had to take a penalty, we couldn’t divide strategy, so I think we left Max to choose the contrary option of Charles [Leclerc].”
According to Carlos Sainz, his penalties left Ferrari handicapped, having only one driver to pressure Verstappen at the front. The Spaniard felt if it were not for his penalties, Ferrari would have been in a better position to claim victory at the Italian GP. But they were unable to prioritize him into the race despite his pace.
Further shedding light on the situation during the Italian GP, the Spanish driver said:
“I think when we stop having penalties and we go to favourable tracks like Singapore and I’m up there, then we will have two cars, not to gamble, but to play around with Max and I think we will be in a better position. I think not having me up there, with the pace I had, was detrimental.”
Carlos Sainz believes Ferrari has improved compared to last year
Suggesting there were a lot of improvements and positives to take from the 2022 season, Carlos Sainz feels Ferrari have taken a step forward and will come back stronger in the 2023 season. The Spanish driver believes the mistakes and errors made in 2022 are a part of the learning curve for the team.
Summarizing the 2022 season so far for Ferrari, Carlos Sainz said:
“It’s a good reaction from our team that is maturing, a team that is learning a lot from this difficult year, and a team that has done a massive step compared to last year in terms of putting ourselves back into winning contention. But we’re still doing mistakes, we’re still learning. It’s a young team I think and we are young in working together. I think there’s been progress this year and even though it’s a difficult second half of the season, I think we’re going to take a lot of knowledge from this to [use] in the last few races and to go for it next year again.”
Both drivers finished second and fourth, but if the momentum continues, they will be able to secure second place in the constructor’s title comfortably, which will be an improvement from last year. Ferrari finished third in the 2021 season and almost had Mercedes challenging them for second place in the constructor’s championship this year. However, contesting Red Bull for first place is definitely getting more difficult for them, since the Milton Keynes squad are comfortably ahead of the Maranello team in both championship standings.
