Carlos Sainz believes Ferrari can shut the hole to Red Bull this weekend at Zandvoort after Max Verstappen stole the present together with his victory in Belgium final weekend.
Even although Red Bull star Verstappen began the race in 14th, by lap 12 he was in first and ultimately gained by 18 seconds to team-mate Sergio Perez, with the RB18 a category above all the opposite vehicles on the grid.
Championship chief Verstappen additionally confirmed superior qualifying pace at Spa-Francorchamps by a margin of eight-tenths of a second to Sainz’s Ferrari.
Yet Sainz – who completed third final week regardless of beginning on pole – is hopeful that was a one-off and this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix will present a return to the tight battles of the primary half of the season between Ferrari and Red Bull.
“It’s a new weekend, going back to where we were before the summer break – I don’t think we are as bad as it seems,” he stated within the FIA press convention.
“I’m pretty sure we can be back on form this weekend and fight for pole and the win. We’re learning a lot race by race. The team has produced a very strong car which was our main target, to get back to the top and fighting to the top of the grid. We’ve achieved that.
“Racing at the front there’s things we can improve but I see a very solid atmosphere in the team. Hopefully next year we can fight for more race wins and Championships.”
Sainz additionally praised Red Bull’s RB18 automobile – with Lewis Hamilton amongst these heaping reward on chief designer Adrian Newey – however refused to entertain the concept the seismic hole at Spa will probably be repeated within the remaining eight races of the season.
“They’ve been raising the bar race-by-race but it didn’t seem too far away when we out-raced them in Austria,” the Spaniard famous.
“I don’t believe they’ve improved so much as they did in Spa. I do think we can do things better, we can learn something from such a difficult weekend.
“We’ve done 14 races this year, all of them we’ve been within a tenth and then there’s one which has been eight-tenths. Maybe I’m being too optimistic that it won’t happen again…”
Source: www.unbiased.co.uk