“I will try to end the year with a good last weekend”

Losail (Qatar) -. Carlos Sainz managed to salvage a difficult race after the puncture caused by tire wear, which could have ended his career in the Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix 2024.

“I think I had the worst today,” he commented. “I had a puncture near the last corner, then I had to do a whole lap with a puncture, I lost a lot of seconds, I made a slow stop because of the puncture, and then when I was coming out of the pits, they brought out the safety car. Everything that was outside, without a puncture or anything, took advantage of the safety car and they stopped in front of us.

“So it was a perfect storm to lose a lot of racing time there, and in the end we started sixth and finished sixth, the end result wasn't that dramatic, but it's true that today we should have finished in the top four, and we are sixth, so it hurts.

A very complicated circuit to overtake many fast curves that make driving close to other cars impossiblesomething that was seen throughout the race, and particularly in the fight between Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly for fifth place.

“There was also a puncture problem,” explained the Madrilenian. “It would have been damaged because I did a whole lap dragging the ground around the car and the front wing. Now we will analyze it, it's difficult to measure because of the amount of traffic that I had, but it probably didn't go as well as it should have gone and then, for me, there was a mistake, which made the DRS zone shorter than last year.

“If you look, all of us who overtook, it was practically too late to overtake, and that's something that, for example, the FIA ​​didn't consult us, to reduce the DRS on a circuit like this, which is not the case. understand why every year the cars are more difficult to overtake and, on the other hand, they continue to reduce the DRS zones, which makes things very complicated.

The best news for Carlos Sainz and Ferrari was the end result in which they shortened the advantage of McLaren and they stay 21 points with one last race to go.

“I think that in the end, the only good thing today, as I said yesterday, is that we have to wait until Sunday to judge the weekend. Charles [Leclerc] He had a clean race, he knew how to maximize his result, and that allows us to go to Abu Dhabi with the hope of winning the constructors' world championship. We will give everything for this, we need a perfect weekend and a podium with both cars. It could be that we have a perfect weekend and McLaren finishes fourth or fifth and the championship is not won, so we will also need their help to make them fail, because otherwise the title is very complicated. “We'll try to do our thing, which is finish the year with a great last weekend, and then see what McLaren does.”

A possible final victory for Carlos Sainz at Ferrari would be the perfect climax during his time at Maranello and that could also mean winning the title.

“I think the most possible is that if I win the race we will also be champions. I will worry about winning in Abu Dhabi, which is the best I can do for the world constructors' championship and what this World Cup can bring to Ferrari”.

It will be in a circuit where you think you can perform better than at Losail.

“I think it will be a little better than this one,” he said of the circuit where the last race of the year will take place. “It should be a better circuit than this one for us. And then you have to take into account that in Abu Dhabi it's also usually a one-stop race, a bit boring, so qualifying is important, and then we have to wait for them It happens to the McLarens, because I insist, if the McLarens finish in the top eight, both cars, I think they would still have a very easy time winning the world championship.

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