Carlos Sainz: “I couldn’t turn into corners, but we can improve” | Qatar Sprint quali. Carlos Sainz on main limitation for the SF-24 during qualifying in Qatar.

Like his teammate Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz didn’t hide his disappointment with a session from which he had expected more, especially as the issues encountered in qualifying caught Ferrari off guard after a promising FP1 where they had been competitive. However, there is also a note of optimism for tomorrow, as Carlos Sainz believes there is potential for marked improvement.

The time set during FP1 came under specific track conditions, with the circuit hotter and wind intensity higher than in qualifying. Moreover, while Leclerc pushed hard to achieve his time, Carlos Sainz seemed more cautious in cornering.

Even so, the car felt good, and the vehicle balance appeared to operate within a solid performance window. The hope was to extract a strong result in qualifying, where the SF-24 tends to struggle, especially when switching to soft tires and needing to maximize grip in the final segment.

Carlos Sainz explained that he didn’t focus too much on the FP1 times, but the feedback was still positive in terms of car balance: “I never try to read too much into FP1 because you never know the fuel loads or engine modes the others are running. The good news was that the car felt better than expected in terms of balance,” said the Spaniard. However, he admitted there were still doubts about the qualifying outcome.

A fast McLaren was anticipated, and this proved true, while Mercedes, on smoother asphalt, seemed able to exploit the aerodynamic load that had previously caused bouncing issues, forcing them to raise their ride height and lose grip in high-speed corners.

During qualifying, Carlos Sainz faced two problems: traffic and understeer. “We approached qualifying already concerned that our rivals might be fast here, and that’s exactly what we saw. I think we didn’t fully optimize our package. Even on a clean lap, I had a lot of understeer, which made it very difficult.”

Traffic also played a role in the Spaniard’s first run, as he encountered Max Verstappen ahead of him while attempting his initial lap on soft tires. Max Verstappen was not pushing but instead preparing his tires for a fast lap. With dirty air from Max Verstappen’s car, Carlos Sainz aborted his lap, slightly disrupting his run plan compared to others.

“Unfortunately, I found myself in a situation where I did the first and second sectors with Max Verstappen ahead as he was preparing his tires, so I had quite a lot of dirty air. Plus, the car’s balance wasn’t optimal. We had a lot of understeer with the tires, making it hard to turn the car.”

“I then had to give the tires a breather for a couple of laps, and when I went for another lap, the understeer was still present. But I needed to set a time, and that was enough for fourth place. It wasn’t easy under pressure, and with this balance, it wasn’t straightforward because it was easy to exceed track limits. Now we know what’s missing for tomorrow.”

The focus is on addressing or mitigating the understeer experienced throughout qualifying, which became even more pronounced in SQ3 with the soft tires. Additionally, Carlos Sainz had to deal with the risk of exceeding track limits on his final attempt, given he hadn’t set a time on his first run.

“Basically, I couldn’t get the car to turn throughout the lap. It was a difficult lap because it was my only chance to set a time, so I couldn’t take too many risks with track limits. Since I lost the previous lap, I just had to make sure I set a time. I think tomorrow we’ll have the potential to improve the car significantly, especially with the soft tires, and this should allow us to make progress,” Carlos Sainz added. After the sprint race, teams will have a window to adjust setups, so what Ferrari learns today could prove crucial.