Ferrari is currently third in the Constructors’ Championship with 441 points, and according to Carlos Sainz, the Austin track will be the real test for the Maranello car.
It’s time to saddle up in Texas! We are on the eve of the United States Grand Prix, which will start at 7:30 PM (Italian time) with the first session of the weekend—the only chance to test the cars before the real action on track. The Sprint race format will return after the event at the Red Bull Ring in Austria back in June.
According to the expert eye of Carlos Sainz, the Circuit of the Americas could provide a summary of the season for the Prancing Horse, allowing the mechanics in Maranello to determine if the steps taken so far are leading in the right direction. With a 75-point gap from first place McLaren and 34 points behind Milton Keynes, Scuderia Ferrari can still believe in improving its position in the Constructors’ Championship standings.
“I think the more tracks that we’ve done since Monza, the more confident we are that the upgrades that we brought to the car start to work pretty much everywhere” he stated, adding that, in reality, the true test for the SF-24 is represented by the Texas track, which is different from the recent circuits where the Ferrari car adapted particularly well: “But for me, I always said, no, with the last three races, I said, until we don’t go to Austin and we try them in a normal track, we will not be able to measure how much we’ve actually improved in tracks like Zandvoort, Spa, where we last struggled a bit more“.
“So I think this will be the most important test so far for us to see whether all these upgrades that we brought in the past are working in the right direction for more of a normal kind of truck like we see here in Austin“.
“Nothing new here is what we brought in Monza. And I think we brought a small upgrade in the front wing for Singapore. But yeah, more than that it’s confirming whether our better pace in the last three races is coming more from going to three tracks that really suited us, like Monza, Baku, and Singapore. or whether it’s also the upgrades having a big effect on whether we were more competitive in those three tracks. And Austin will be able to tell us which one of the two it is.“the number 55 specified.
The last six races in red, Sainz: “I want to achieve a nice podium or a victory.”
The chapter of Carlos Sainz’s career in the colors of Maranello is almost coming to an end with the few remaining events of the season. Although the Spanish driver is excited to race for James Vowles’ team next year, he has once again stated his only priority at the moment: to help Ferrari until the last second of this season, aiming for a great result before the Grand Finale in Abu Dhabi in November.
“For me it’s two separate things. I’m really looking forward to next year and the challenge with Williams. First of all, it’s also good to see how much they’ve improved recently and how that car now can get to the points quite often in the last few races. So there’s encouragement, and looking forward to that, obviously. But there’s first a job to finish this year with six races left in a car that can potentially allow me to win a race or score a couple more podiums. And I want to maximise this opportunity to see if I can help the team also finish as far ahead as possible in the Constructors’ Championship and obviously give myself that big present of a nice podium or a win, which is what I’m looking for and what I’m focusing on with the last six races.“.
Photo: Scuderia Ferrari HP.