Carlos Sainz Jr (ESP) Ferrari. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 17, Japanese Grand Prix, Thursday 21st September 2023. Suzuka, Japan.
Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz says he would be unsurprised if Red Bull were to win all of the remaining races across the rest of 2023.
Sainz interrupted Red Bull’s unbeaten run in 2023 as he followed up pole position with victory at last Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix.
Red Bull struggled for pace throughout the weekend at Marina Bay, with neither Max Verstappen nor Sergio Perez making Q3, while in the race Verstappen recovered to fifth, and Perez claimed eighth.
“It obviously gives me a lot of pride on me and the whole team in being able to do so [take victory] because they were at such a high level that it seemed almost impossible at some stage in the season to beat them,” said Sainz.
“Suddenly to turn up in Singapore and do it in the way we did it is a great feeling, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they still win the rest of the races of the championship.
“I’ve been before in F1 in the position of going through a good run and it’s always important to keep your head down and try and keep the momentum going as it’s difficult to find those momentums in such a competitive environment.
“We have a good chance now and that’s the target, keep our heads down, Singapore is over, focus on Suzuka.”
Sainz says he and Ferrari will continue to experiment with the set-up of the SF-23 to understand what can be implemented into next year’s car.
“The car is still not great in some areas, very good in others, there’s certain tracks like Monza and Singapore that the car has adapted very well, others like Zandvoort, Silverstone, that it was very difficult to drive,” he said.
“It’s still a tricky car, we’re tyring to find the right set-up, the only thing I can say is we’ve been working very hard to find the sweet spot and probably we still haven’t found it yet.
“That’s why every weekend I try something different in the car to try and challenge myself, try and challenge the team, try and challenge the car to put it in a bit of a different place, and it seems to be working.
“We keep finding little ways to find a better pace – and with this I don’t mean more predictable – just find speed.”
Keyword: Sainz expects Red Bull walkover across rest of ’23