Ferrari’s focus is clearly shifting to the 2023 season, as Max Verstappen closes in on what appears to be an inevitable second drivers’ title.
In fact, while it will rely on a particularly bad weekend for Ferrari and Charles Leclerc, the Red Bull star could theoretically wrap up the title next weekend in Singapore.
“It would take a bit too much luck to win the title in Singapore,” the reigning world champion is quoted by Speed Week.
“I just want to go there and try to win that race too but we are having a great season. We should appreciate that and try to enjoy the moment a little.”
Sainz, who is Leclerc’s teammate at Ferrari, appears resigned to the reality that the Maranello based team will need to try again to beat Red Bull in 2023.
“I would like a consistent end to the season now, especially with the amount of things that have happened to us this year,” he told El Mundo Deportivo newspaper.
“I would like to have a calm last part of the season with fewer things happening to us and to be able to pick up the rhythm for next year, which will be a new opportunity,” the Spaniard added.
With that said, Sainz insists that Ferrari can be proud to have created a “solid foundation” for the next step.
“We have to try to improve a couple of things like reliability and consistency,” he said.
“We have to bear in mind that this year we have fought against a team like Red Bull that is doing things perfectly. We have to learn from that and be the team that does it like that next year.”
Sainz also thinks Ferrari, led by the under-fire Mattia Binotto, has been subject to unique levels of criticism that only the Maranello team seems to face.
“It is something that I had been warned about,” he said.
“They told me to be prepared because the press in Italy was going to be really hard, but until you’re inside you don’t realise.
“I have read disproportionate criticism of the team but it is part of the beauty of being part of such a large organisation and an emblem of the motoring world.
“I don’t see it as a problem.”
(GMM)
