Carlos Sainz’s words at the end of the second free practice session of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Carlos Sainz finished in fourth place in the second free practice session, 582 thousandths behind Lando Norris in first position. The Ferrari driver Ferrari. who had to watch from the sidelines in the morning, showed decent pace, but the gap to the top spot sums up Ferrari’s Friday at the Maranello team.
A miracle will be needed for the Maranello team in the Constructors’ Championship fight with McLaren, who have a 21-point lead, and Leclerc, who will start with a 10-place grid penalty due to a battery change. In light of what happened on this Friday, there is little to smile about for Ferrari, as emphasized by Sainz’s own words.
Here are the Spaniard’s statements: “As always, when the track temperature drops and we have the soft tires, we struggle more; we are not really half a second away from McLaren, but we are two or three tenths off. This is something we need to recover by tomorrow: we carried this deficit into the long runs as well. Surprised by the gap? No, McLaren and Lando in particular have always been fast here in Abu Dhabi. They will always be a tough team to beat, and right now they seem to be the strongest.” .
Carlos then added: “I only had one session, but I’m happy with how quickly I was able to get back into rhythm. By the second lap, I had the best time. This is good news because it means I have confidence in the car, and I know how to approach it and how to drive it. However, with the softs, we had problems, we can’t extract all the performance from them.” “.