SAKHIR, BAHRAIN — Carlos Sainz is concerned about the “bouncing” of this season’s Formula 1 car, and believes the week-two trip to Saudi Arabia will provide Ferrari with “the biggest challenge”.
Ferrari headed into the first race weekend of the season with a lot more belief than the last two years, during which they finished 6th and 3rd in the Constructors’ Championship. With 2022 ushering in a new era for Formula 1 thanks to a drastic design overhaul focused on creating closer racing, there has been renewed backing of Ferrari from fans and pundits.
Indeed, the Italian giants looked very impressive throughout testing at Barcelona and Sakhir, having had a relatively consistent setup. Meanwhile, reigning constructors champions Mercedes, for example, changed the W13 dramatically between those two tests, and additionally were accused of the usual “sandbagging”.
Speaking at the Bahrain International Circuit, on the eve of Free Practice, Sainz said when asked if he was eyeing a victory on Sunday: “Not really, because you still don’t want to believe it completely.
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“You want to come in here ready to fight for a win, but also not trying to believe too much the hype around us, and whatever they think we are. So I’m ready for whatever comes, because I’ve been preparing for this weekend for a while.
You guys cannot imagine the effort we put into this project. It’s been a big push by the whole team. I feel proud after the first six days of testing, how the team has performed, how [few] reliability issues and how solid we were during the whole testing.
“Last year was very important just to get to know the team, improve the team in areas where I thought there was a margin of improvement to become a solid team - back in the factory and also in the race team, in the strategy, the way we have changed a couple of things.
“We are more solid now than we were at the beginning of last year. It’s definitely helped us to be a bit more bonded, a bit more together, and ready for whatever comes this year.”
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The biggest side-effect of the 2022 update, and the most-discussed topic in the paddock here in Bahrain, is the already-infamous “porpoising” or “bouncing.” Sainz is certainly among those concerned by it, and thinks this opening Grand Prix won’t be a good enough indicator of its prevalence due to having all of last week to adapt to the conditions.
The Spaniard said: “As a driver, you suffer the bouncing. But at the same time you know that the lower you go with this car, the faster you are in the corners, and then the more you suffer on the straights because of the bouncing. So, it’s a compromise to be found.
“I’m a strong believer that bouncing will disappear and shouldn’t be there. It’s not normal to see an F1 car jump like that. We are trying to address it.
“It starts affecting your braking points because you cannot see them, your braking references because you cannot brake that late any more. So, there is a compromise to be found, between driver comfort, car performance, how sick you get in the car! There’s a lot of that chat going on in the engineering room, for sure.
“I think the tricky bit will be when we go to circuits where we haven’t been testing, because I still believe the tarmac, the conditions, the heat, the air pressure, everything affects the aerodynamics, so it affects the bouncing.
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“The biggest challenge will be Saudi, because it’s a really high-speed circuit and it’s a new track for all of us with these cars. It will be tricky to set up.”
Elsewhere, a big regulation change outside of the car itself comes with tire selection for the Grand Prix itself. Under the old rules, whichever tire compound a driver used during Q3 had to then be carried into the race, whereas now, there will be a free selection on the Sunday.
Sainz recognizes one flaw in the system, but believes it’s outweighed by the advantages: “I think it’s more fair. The only negative thing is, the races that are on the limit of the two- and one-stop, everyone will elect a stiffer compound and the race will become an easier one-stop, because you can start on a new medium. But I am happy to take that downside.”
Finally, the 27-year-old has backed the FIA’s clarification over unlapping procedure under a safety car, following the controversial finish at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
While the attention was naturally all on Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, Sainz was affected as he was running 3rd in that race, yet the two lapped cars between himself and Verstappen were not allowed to unlap themselves. As such, he didn’t have the chance to make it a three-way battle for the race victory.
However, Sainz is not holding too much ill feeling: “I am a strong believer that if that example helped make the Formula 1 rules better, then so be it.
“I was affected by it - it was a very unfortunate situation for me, because I was probably fighting for my first win, and I had the cars in front of me that didn’t allow me to fight for that. But I think the FIA have taken the right steps going forward. I’m happy to see everyone moving on, taking the right direction.”
