Carlos Sainz: "Formula 1 is beautiful this year"

First thing in the morning, under an overcast sky and only 11ºC in the environment, Carlos Sainz saved some of his time for the Spanish press displaced to Montmeló....

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First thing in the morning, under an overcast sky and only 11ºC in the atmosphere,

Carlos Sainz

saved some of his time for the Spanish press who traveled to Montmeló.

While

Charles Leclerc

started the third day aboard the F1-75, the man from Madrid cleared up some doubts about this start of the preseason, where Ferrari has been showing a great competitive level.

His renewal with the

Scuderia

and reservations about the performance of opponents were some of the hot points of the conversation.

George Russell said yesterday that Mercedes, for now, has a lower competitive level than Ferrari or McLaren.

How do you rate these words? We all make our guesses about how much gasoline, DRS, battery or motor others use.

According to them, Ferrari is ahead, but our numbers suggest that it is not.

What I trust is the latter.

And from Mercedes, based on what has happened in recent years, I wouldn't believe much either. What were the expectations before arriving here and how have they evolved after these first two days? They were few, because I had no idea where the the rest.

We know about our work during the last year and a half and I assure you that there have been things that we liked and things that we didn't, as always in the tests.

We are here to work and not look at others,

but on what we expected from our car and what we need to improve.

We are discovering so many things these days that it is very difficult to stop to think about the others because each one will go with their battery, their fuel load or whatever they want. Which rivals have surprised you the most? all, because of how different they are from each other.

In a regulation that was going to be so restricted with the design, that suddenly 10 cars appear that have nothing to do with each other... These are arguments that show that the Fsí is beautiful this year.

I like to see these differences.

How the imagination of each team of engineers achieves different things.

Although then we will all go to a similar lap time. Why is there no exits from the track,

or incidents in a preseason with such a profound regulatory revolution? The downforce is different from that of 2021 and I still have to adapt.

However, I think the car drifts a bit more, so you can play with it on the corner entry angles and the way you slide.

Until now, I have managed to save all the scares, without stepping on the gravel.

The others must be experiencing the same thing. Is anyone hiding some magical solution, similar to the one that helped Brawn GP to become champion in the 2009 World Championship? I don't know, because I haven't stopped to see it.

Although I think that example was so obvious that they couldn't even hide it.

In any case, hopefully this season there will not be another case like this. There has been a lot of talk about 'porpoising', that uncomfortable wobbling of the cars in the fastest areas...

We suffered it, as seen in a video published yesterday by F1, with Charles at the wheel.

It has certainly been one of the top priorities since Wednesday.

When we went out on the track, we felt it and we saw that it was difficult like this.

So you have to work on it.

The first to correct it will be the first to lower the height of the car.

And that, in turn, will have a noticeable impact on the effect. There's also been a lot of talk about the increased wheel size, though less about the feel of the new compounds... They seem to allow you to push a bit more than last year and slide without paying so much toll at the level of degradation.

In addition, the difference between compounds is much greater.

Between C1, C2 and C3 there is much more time per lap.

I don't know what will happen in other circuits but here we have noticed it a lot.

What are your feelings with the new engine?

We have not tightened it as much as we can, nor as we will during the season.

In 2021 we knew that we had improved, but that we would not reach the level of the Mercedes.

Now, the only thing I can say is that until we know the maximum power of the rivals, it will be difficult to gauge whether or not we are at their level. Did the negotiations with Ferrari depend on the performance of the car in these first tests? No.

I said it last year and I repeat it now.