What’s going on with Carlos Sainz?
If Sainz hasn’t been in the barriers this year, he’s been well off the pace of his teammate Charles Leclerc.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz is struggling. After five races in 2022, he has crashed three times, spun himself out of a race, and is still getting surprised by his own car.
When Ferrari floundered in the midfield during 2021, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were essentially on equal footing.
Some would say Sainz even had a slight edge, having finished the year with more podiums and points than Leclerc.
But 2022 is different.
Leclerc is now pulling clear. He has outqualified and outraced Sainz in all five races, has four podiums and two wins, and holds the championship lead.
By comparison, Sainz has just three podiums, no wins, three crashes, and two races where he has had to retire in the opening laps.
Sainz has not had a happy transition to the new 2022 cars.
“It is not a lie that I was probably not very happy with our car,” he commented after the opening round in Bahrain, where he finished second behind Leclerc.
Sainz said he felt like he needed to bring the car a bit more towards his driving style and get it to his liking. ”I just need to keep experimenting, keep trying diections and see what the car likes.”
But, four races after he made those comments, Sainz still looks uncomfortable.
He spun himself out in Australia, crashed on his own during Imola qualifying, got caught up in a clash with Daniel Ricciardo in the Imola race, and then got himself into the barriers in Miami practice too.
“I think I’m still learning a lot of this car,” Sainz said after the Miami crash. “This car is still surprising me”, he said, a comment that only further hints at his disharmony with Ferrari’s 2022 challenger.
Still, Sainz’s Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto has suggested that something else is at play.
In Imola, he questioned whether Sainz has adapted to the pressure of driving a car in the hunt for the championship.
“He simply need to get used to that,” Binotto said. “But he will do it very quickly, because I know how smart and how capable he is to manage the pressure.”
Ferrari have not lost faith in Sainz.
Binotto’s comments came just days after Ferrari announced a contract extension for Sainz, confirming the Spaniard would stay with the Scuderia until the end of 2024 at the very least.
Binotto also had high praise for Sainz’s efforts in Miami, where he finished third, completing a double-podium for Ferrari.
“Carlos made up for Friday’s setback,” Binotto said, in reference to Sainz’s crash in practice. “He produced a solid performance, especially in the way he fended off Perez in style in the closing stages.”
Sainz said that he needed the Miami result to “reset a bit”.
Now he is taking on the Spanish Grand Prix, his home race.
If the Spaniard wants to emerge from the shadow cast by Leclerc and jump-start his 2022 season, he needs to get to grips with his car quickly and lay down a strong marker in front of his home fans.
Author’s note: Sorry for such a late post this week. I hope this post was still an interesting read ahead of qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix.