Carlos Sainz unsure of Ferrari F1’s competitiveness in upcoming Austrian GP

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz is not entirely sure if the team will be able to replicate their Canadian GP performance in the next week's Austrian GP.

Despite a poor qualifying on Saturday last week, Ferrari bounced back effectively as Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finished P4 and P5 after starting from P10 and P11, respectively, owing to a one-stop strategy.

Had they not started so far from the front, many believe they could have challenged Max Verstappen for the win in the race.

However, ahead of the Austrian GP, as per RacingNews365, Carlos Sainz said:

"Our pace in Austria will depend a lot on the characteristics of the circuit, our pace varies a lot depending on that. We see places like Monaco or Canada we are stronger than places with higher speed corners like Barcelona, where we struggle a bit more, so I think we will see variations in our competitiveness."

He added:

"I knew Barcelona wasn't a good track for us, and that Canada was going to be better. It was confirmed on Friday pace, that lower degradation circuits and ones with slower speed corners we are stronger at, and [it meant] we could show a bit more our true pace [in the race]."

Carlos Sainz analyzes his Canadian GP performance

After his P5 finish, Carlos Sainz mentioned that it was a positive race for the Italian team as both drivers finished in the top five.

As per F1.com, he said:

"Today was a positive race. We were able to push continuously and recover after a challenging qualifying. We made the right strategy calls and we had a strong pace, especially with the Medium tyre. The car felt good and we could push a bit more, also extending the first stint quite a lot, so I’m happy with that. We’re making progress in the right direction and we need to keep up the good work."

Team Principal Frederic Vasseur complimented both driver's performance in the race, adding:

"It was a good race for us, confirming that we are working in the right direction. After a poor qualifying yesterday, we rediscovered the race pace we had seen on Friday, helped in this by a good strategy that took us out of traffic, so that Charles and Carlos had the confidence to push throughout the race. It was notable that in the second half, our drivers were matching the lap times of the top three. We are progressing race by race."

It will be fascinating to see if Ferrari can challenge for podiums and race win in Austria next week.