“We put ourselves in a good position for Sunday”: Carlos Sainz hopeful of pushing Max Verstappen to win his 2nd F1 race in Austria

Ferrari's prospects seem to be improving competitively as the Scuderia secured yet another impressive result with Carlos Sainz setting the third-fastest qualifying lap in Austria behind his team-mate this weekend. The 28-year-old was certainly happy with the result and the overall progress made by the team over the last few races.

He admitted that he was a lot closer to championship leader Max Verstappen in his lap times than he expected. In a post-qualifying media interaction, Carlos Sainz said:

"It was good - I think we had a strong qualifying as a team, and I definitely felt like we've made some progress recently. Closer to Max than expected throughout qualifying, so overall, we need to be happy. We have a lot of weekend ahead of us, at least for today we put ourselves in a good position for Sunday to try and get a podium with both cars."

The Spaniard added:

"I think tomorrow will be a different day, a different forecast, different track conditions, so it could also be a very different picture, so we just need to stay focused. Obviously, we are in parc ferme, so we can't improve the cars a lot from today to tomorrow but we will look into the smallest details to see where we can improve."

His team-mate Charles Leclerc got painfully close to taking pole, lacking just half of a tenth on his qualifying lap against pole-sitter Max Verstappen.

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Carlos Sainz says Ferrari have taken a "step in the right direction" with the new upgrades

Ferrari have brought in a new front wing and floor ahead of the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix this weekend, and Carlos Sainz believes that it will play a significant role in improving the team's competitiveness against the likes of Red Bull.

When asked about his expectations from the new Ferrari upgrades this weekend in Spielberg, in a press conference ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, the Spaniard said:

"Well, another step in the right direction. This is definitely the target. The team back in Maranello has done an incredible effort to bring them forward to this race. I cannot thank enough the people back in Maranello with the extra hours that everyone's put in to try and revert the situation and trying to put those extra minutes, extra hours of work to make these parts arrive."

"It's been a huge effort by everyone, and from here, I wanted to congratulate them and tell them that we're going to do our best to make them work well. And hopefully they're all worth it and we can be competitive this weekend."

Carlos Sainz currently stands fifth in the drivers' standings with 68 points to his name.