Carlos Sainz admits he is struggling with conflicting emotions relating to his and Ferrari’s form before he leaves the team, after taking pole position at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton will replace Sainz next season after Ferrari signed the seven-time world champion at the start of the year, with the Spaniard heading to Williams. With five races remaining, Sainz delivered two excellent laps to qualify on pole position in Mexico and continue Ferrari’s recent good run, but he admits the fact he believes he can fight for such results consistently until the end of the year is a bittersweet feeling.
“Very sweet, given how good the car is, how well I’m driving recently, [I am] very optimistic going into the last five races,” Sainz said. “At the same time bittersweet because it gives me the feeling that Ferrari might be in the fight for the world championship next year and I won’t be there to use it.
“I feel like I have been quite a big part of this team during the four years trying to prepare the team to fight for that championship next year. The fact that I’m driving well, being fast with the car, and I’m leaving in five races, leaves me a bit… I don’t know how to say it, but not with a very good feeling.
“But it is what it is. I’m going to try and win more races, stand on the podium for as long as I can for these five races, enjoy that, and then we will think about next year.”
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Both of Sainz’s Q3 laps were good enough for pole position in Mexico as he beat Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, and he says getting the first attempt right allowed him more margin on the second run.
“They were two really good laps, and the fact the first lap was so good and so much clear of the field allowed me to take even further risks,” he said. “In Q3 [on the final run] I added a bit of front wing as I had nothing to lose and to see if I added a bit of front end to the car I will go even quicker. But that’s what happens when the first lap is so good.
“The first lap of Q3, I didn’t take many risks with the Turn 2 curb, trying to stay away from track limits, while in the second lap I knew the first might be enough for pole and I just tried to maximize the track limits and it gave me a tenth for free which I kept for the rest of the lap.
“Two good laps, especially when you see the guys behind me, with Lando, Max and Charles [Leclerc], to be 0.2-0.3s clear, it must be some pretty solid laps.”
Leclerc led home Sainz in a dominant Ferrari one-two last weekend in Austin, and Sainz believes he has every chance of making it back-to-back victories for the Scuderia, as long as he can retain the lead at the start.
“I’m relatively confident because I know my race pace should be good tomorrow,” he said. “Probably the biggest difficulty will be the run down into Turn 1 and starting pole with the slipstream. I think you can still defend, you can still make it stick into Turn 1, starting pole, and that will be my goal tomorrow.
“I just need to make sure I do a good 0-100 [mph], which is the most important thing when you start on pole, just make sure you do a good jump. From there, obviously do the best I can to defend.
“I have two guys behind fighting for quite important things tomorrow and the run down to Turn 1 should be interesting. I have obviously less to lose in that sense and I will try and make sure I keep P1.”