Sainz: Ferrari sending message with new engine

Michelle Foster
Carlos Sainz sitting in his Ferrari. Russia September 2021

Carlos Sainz sitting in his Ferrari with his visor up, looking focused. Russia September 2021

Racing his way from the back of the grid to P8 in Turkey, Carlos Sainz says there is definitely “something” in Ferrari’s new power unit.

Sainz started Sunday’s 58-lap Turkish Grand Prix from 19th place on the grid, the Spaniard incurring an engine penalty when Ferrari fitted his SF21 with its fourth engine of this season.

The Scuderia announced prior to the race weekend that Sainz would be joining Charles Leclerc in racing Ferrari’s updated hybrid system.

Sainz put it to good use, slicing his way through the field as he worked his way into the top ten.

Although his progress stalled a bit after his pit stop, he brought his car home in eighth place.

Asked about his new PU, he told Sky Italia: “There is something. We don’t want to talk about that, but there is something.

“It proves to you that we’re working. As Scuderia Ferrari we’re not stopping, we brought an upgrade seven races from the end when everyone is already thinking about next year.

“We keep finding something in the engine, in the development. We’re pushing because we don’t want to finish P4, P8, we want to win.

“Today has been a good race, a nice emotion as my first race at the attack with Ferrari, I enjoyed. I want more races like this.”

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Sainz was without a doubt one of the stars in Sunday’s race as he pulled off overtake after another.

“There have been many,” he said. “I had to do them one by one, it’s not like I had a great start and I was already P12 at the beginning. I think I was still P19 after the first corner and I had to push to the fullest.

“There was a point when I was overtaking one driver per lap and I was enjoying a lot. Then the track dried up a bit and it was more difficult overtaking, managing the tyre, the dirty air, when there was just one dry trail, was much more difficult to handle.

“But in the last ten laps I was very fast and we could recover what we lost at the pit stop.”

Unfortunately an eight-second pit stop meant he wasn’t able to challenge his former team-mate Lando Norris for P7, but Sainz says that’s was just a little hiccup on an otherwise fantastic day.

 

“Yes, it’s possible, but it’s not a day to complain because everything went very well, it’s a day to be happy.

“But when you finish three seconds behind Norris, I had to do ten laps behind Ocon, because I could not overtake him, when instead I had to come out of the pits close to Norris, that cost us a bit for sure.

“But it’s not a day to complain as I said.”

Additional reporting from Luca Brambilla

 

Ferrari send message to McLaren in Turkey

Ferrari send a message to McLaren after the closing the points at the Turkish Grand Prix.