The Spaniard was keen not to take any chances immediately after the start as he didn’t want his Ferrari debut at the Bahrain Grand Prix to end in an early crash.
By taking it easy, he shuffled too much in his pack and then had to spend much of the evening relaxing before finally coming home in eighth place, two places behind his teammate Charles Leclerc.
While hoping to land higher, Sainz said he felt like the performance had been pretty strong during the race, especially since his early caution had got him badly affected.
“Overall, it was a good weekend for me,” said Sainz after the race. “Maybe the result itself is nothing special, but I think the weekend is stronger than the result under race and qualifying conditions.
“I was a bit on my hindfoot after the first few laps and was probably a little cautious on my first few laps with Ferrari. I just wanted to make sure I finished this race.”
“After I managed to evacuate the two slower cars, the Aston and the Alpine, and get into the clean air, I was actually very happy with the car and was able to get the pace out of the car.”
“So a good first weekend. In the next 22 races there will be time to be a little more aggressive at the start and a little better in the first few laps. I have to get a little more out of the car.” “”
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Carlos Sainz Jr., Ferrari SF21
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Coincidentally, Sainz finished right behind his McLaren successor Daniel Ricciardo, which he saw as a good sign considering how much faster his previous team had been over the last year.
“It’s encouraging because I remember getting past Charles pretty easily last year. I remember how big the difference was between the McLaren and the Ferrari,” he said.
“I was close to overtaking the McLaren at the end and by the end of the race I had a much better pace than Daniel. We caught half a second per lap.
“So there are positive signs, encouragement and a big step compared to last year. Now it’s a matter of tweaking the details, continuing to work hard in Maranello and further improving.”
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