"That's a weakness in his game": Carlos Sainz's driving style explored

Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc have not performed very identically this season or the previous season. However, it is a little hard to compare the two drivers since they've both had moments of glory and tragic episodes throughout the seasons.

However, there is, to an extent, a contrast that can be drawn between the two drivers' driving and performance, which is what was talked about on The Race F1 podcast.

Scott Mitchell-Malm discussed Sainz's performance in context with his teammate, taking Azerbaijan as a reference. He mentioned that the former wasn't the best at setting his car up, but he has gotten there somewhat.

Mitchell-Malm said:

"As I was saying before, he still can't deal with that in the way Leclerc can at his peak. But he's getting there and I think he understands a bit better where to go on set up, which is one of the reasons why I think that format in Azerbaijan probably hurt him."

Carlos Sainz's weekend in Baku wasn't the best, according to the podcast host, because of the time he had to set up his car. There was only one practice session owing to the new sprint weekend format the sport was following.

It gave him less time to set up his car and drop back to his teammate in performance, which, according to the host, is his weakness.

He added:

"With your two practise sessions on Friday, a night of digging into the data, further changes on Saturday practise and then getting it really ready for qualifying. I would be amazed if Sainz was anything more than a couple of tenths off Leclerc by the end of that process. But he didn't have that opportunity and that's a weakness in in in his game."

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Carlos Sainz's recovery later in the season expected by Ed Straw

F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain

Carlos Sainz might be on the radar of some critics. However, The Race F1 podcast host, Ed Straw, believes that the Spaniard is one of those drivers who usually make a late recovery by the end of the season, labeling it as one of the best qualities he has as a driver.

He said:

"It's a great quality of Sainz that you can say as Mark did that as the season goes on, we know we'll get on top of it because that's what he does. Sainz works really hard, intelligently delves into it, reprograms what he's doing and generally gets to a pretty good level. That's just the kind of driver he is."

Carlos Sainz is currently ten points ahead of Leclerc in the standings, but that is largely because of the tough start the latter has had in the season. Two DNFs and a seventh-place finish haven't served the Ferrari driver well. However, improvements are expected from both drivers later in the season.