Sainz accepts McLaren’s reality during Ferrari crisis

Carlos Sainz has admitted that Ferrari is currently unable to compete with McLaren, who overtook the Italians in the constructors’ championship last weekend in Hungary.

McLaren claimed their first one-two finish since the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc and Sainz finishing fourth and sixth respectively.

Ferrari were comfortably fourth in the standings at the Hungarian Grand Prix, although Sainz’s race was not helped by a poor start.

The Spanish rider was disappointed by what he described as his first bad start of the year, which is now being analysed by the team.

“Obviously I’m disappointed because the start cost me almost the entire race,” Sainz told the media, including Racing News 365“First bad start to the season, so I can’t be too hard on myself or the team.

“We have to analyse if it was a mistake on my part in the procedure, if we simply had too aggressive clutch settings for the start and if we simply paid the price with this wheel slip that did not allow me to start. So we will have to look at and analyse the data.”

“At the same time, as I said, one bad start in the whole season, all the other starts have been excellent.

“So I’ll try not to be too hard on myself or the team, and it’s just unfortunate that it happened on the track where the start is probably more important.”

McLaren too strong

After the Hungarian GP, ​​Ferrari dropped to third place in the standings and is currently 16 points behind McLaren.

McLaren appear to have the strongest package at the moment, while Red Bull also have some performance issues.

Sainz is not surprised to have seen McLaren overtake Ferrari and does not see the Italians competing with them in the coming rounds.

However, he hopes the gap will close once a decent upgrade is introduced by the Maranello-based team.

“Yes, I think it was a matter of time for McLaren to overtake us, given their performance and our performance. So yes, it happened,” Sainz added.

“And it was quite easy for them to do a one-two, and we were P4 and P6, which is more or less our level of the last three or four races. Now it’s time to focus.”

“It will take a little while to put together a package that can compete with McLaren. I don’t think we can offer it for Spa or the first race after the summer break.

“But I hope that soon after that we will find something that will bridge the gap and we can get back into the fight.”