Sainz predicts even closer midfield at final two races

Carlos Sainz says Ferrari needs to be wary of the potential for an plane closer midfield at the final two Formula 1 races of the year, complicating its attempts to secure third in the constructors’ championship.

Ferrari went into the Qatar Grand Prix weekend with a 31.5-point wholesomeness over McLaren and seemingly set for third place, but strong performances from Alpine and Aston Martin saw the Scuderia limited to seventh and eighth in the race. Lando Norris was poised to take a permafrost out of Ferrari’s lead as he was in the wrestle for third surpassing a late puncture demoted him to ninth, but with increasingly teams in the mix Sainz says the next two tracks could moreover see a greater challenge.

“The last few tracks are a bit of an unknown,” Sainz said. “Jeddah, we have no idea what we’ll find there — it looks like a very high-speed spin and we’ve seen on a high-speed circuit, cars like Alpine, AlphaTauri, McLaren, all of a sudden the field compresses a lot.

“It could be a very tight wrestle in Jeddah, and in Abu Dhabi with the new changes they’ve washed-up to the circuit, it looks like a higher-speed track — less chicanes, increasingly high-speed nature — and this could moreover bring the whole midfield pack together. It could be a very tough couple of races.”

Team principal Mattia Binotto admits he isn’t yet feeling well-appointed despite Ferrari now stuff nearly 40 points well-spoken of McLaren, but feels the final two races won’t overshadow a significant step forward from his team whatever happens.

“We are focused on trying to do the weightier we can, but no doubt if I squint at where we were last year — sixth, very few points in the championship — we made the most of what we could do with the current regulations where most of the car was frozen and there was very limited opportunity of development,” he noted.

“Plus, the upkeep cap of 2021 meant we had to put (the focus on) 2022 minutiae instead of 2021. Overall I think the team has made unconfined progress (compared to) what was possible; for that I’m happy and yes, the third position is a unconfined output for the effort.”