Carlos Sainz seeking 'complete weekend' to aid Ferrari progress

Ferrari

Sainz seeking 'complete weekend' to aid Ferrari progress

Sainz is ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc in the drivers' standings

Will Gray

Friday 6 August 2021 14:55

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Carlos Sainz is confident his Ferrari consistency will grow "as soon as I start putting weekends together".

Although Daniel Ricciardo, Sebastian Vettel and Sergio Perez have taken time to adapt to their new teams after winter moves, Sainz was quick to get to grips with things at Ferrari.

At the summer break, Sainz leads team-mate Charles Leclerc by three points in the standings and has two podium finishes to his name.

On his winter switch, Sainz said: “Obviously it was quite a big challenge when I started.

"I was going in with confidence but you don’t know how it is going to turn out and I must say I am quite proud, quite happy.

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“The speed has been there since race one, which immediately made me a lot more relaxed about it. I knew I was very fast straight away with this car and I could just improve in the other things, [it's] just getting the whole weekend together.”

Sainz ready to become more consistent

Sainz's second podium for Ferrari arrived in Hungary with a huge slice of luck given the carnage at turn one, although his third place is subject to an appeal from Aston Martin over Sebastian Vettel's disqualification for a fuel irregularity.

The Spaniard has finished behind Leclerc in all but four of the 10 races they have both started - Leclerc having failed to take the start in Monaco - but Sainz believes consistency will come to partner his outright speed.

“I feel like the first few races it was very difficult to put the weekend together,” he added. “There was a lot of speed but very rarely I could put the qualifying, race strategy, tyre management, starts together and score a good result.

“I feel like recently that has got a lot better and as soon as I start putting weekends together then I think I am going to start being a lot more consistent, not only fast.”