Why Carlos Sainz is not enjoying his battles with Fernando Alonso this season

Carlos Sainz stated that he is not enjoying his battles with Fernando Alonso in the 2023 F1 season. Though Alonso is a childhood hero for Sainz, the raw pace and stability difference between the Ferrari and Aston Martin is making the young Spaniard's life miserable whenever he fights with the 41-year-old.

Speaking to Tom Clarkson on the F1 Nation podcast for the Miami GP recap, Carlos Sainz explained how he keeps checking his mirrors for Fernando Alonso whenever he is fighting against him for a position in the race. Though the Ferrari is brilliant in qualifying, its race pace is nowhere compared to the Aston Martin. This results in Sainz always ending up defending against Alonso, which he does not enjoy. He said:

"No, because I always feel like I'm looking in the mirror. It is true that normally Ferrari tends to qualify a bit better than the Aston [Martin] but they are still in the race is faster, so...or Fernando [Alonso] in the race together with that Aston, they are very very competitive, which means that they have better tire management and I tend to always defend from him."

Carlos Sainz was unable to get onto the podium by beating Fernando Alonso in the Miami GP. Ferrari has not made major leaps with their car this year, while Aston Martin has skyrocketed to the front with their new machinery. The Aston Martin is simply the faster car this year and Sainz will have to get used to defending against his childhood hero in the upcoming races.

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Carlos Sainz on a tricky qualifying session in the 2023 F1 Miami GP

The qualifying session for the 2023 F1 Miami GP was by no means easy for drivers and teams, including Carlos Sainz, who placed himself third. He explained how it was quite tricky with different tire compounds behaving differently on the Miami circuit, which was quite slippery and unforgiving. In a post-qualifying media interaction, the Ferrari driver said:

"It was a very tricky quali for all. I think it's very difficult to find the right feeling with the tyres around this tarmac, and it was a fight the whole way through and very easy to make mistakes. It was getting windier and windier...but in general it was a decent outcome for tomorrow, but today I think we could have been even better."

Unfortunately, Carlos Sainz went down from P3 to P5 during the race, being passed by Max Verstappen and George Russell as well.