Why were Ferrari's race pace gains in Canada only track-specific, according to Carlos Sainz?

Carlos Sainz has explained how Ferrari's race pace heavily depends on a track's layout. The Italian team looked brilliant at the Canadian GP, mainly because of the low-speed corners and heavy braking zones, as opposed to Barcelona, which has high-speed corners.

At the drivers' press conference before the Austrian GP, Sainz explained the dependancy on track for the team's performances. As there was essentially no tyre degradation and low-speed corners in Canada, Ferrari had better pace:

"I didn't intend to sound it like it was a genuine gain. I do think it's also track-related. Why? Because in Canada, there's basically… nearly zero deg, which helps us and then there's also no high-speed corners, that helps us.

"You put these two things combined, and you have a race where the race pace, because we have less deg, and a car overall, it was more competitive because there's none of the high-speed corners that we had in Barcelona, that we were struggling a lot."

Sainz also talked about Ferrari's new upgrade package and how the team is constantly trying to improve their car to suit all kinds of tracks.

"We are obviously trying to improve these weaknesses every race and, for sure, in Canada, we were trying to do steps. And here, with a package we're bringing, we're also trying to improve the performance.

"So, we might see an improvement and a tendency starting from Canada – but I do think still Canada suits us more than Austria."

Carlos Sainz likes his team's chances at the Austrian GP, as Ferrari were quite competitive at the Red Bull Ring last year.

"Let's see, it could also be different because here in Austria last year. We were also very competitive. So, sometimes in F1, you have your circuits: weekends where the car just works better than others, and it's how it goes sometimes."

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Ferrari are in a better place after Canadian GP - Carlos Sainz

Carlos Sainz feels Ferrari are in a buoyant mood after the Canadian GP. The Italian outfit looked strong in Montreal, especially in terms of race pace, which they lacked in previous races.

Sainz elucidated how the track layout helped him and his teammate, Charles Leclerc:

"I think it was a good boost for the whole team, mainly looking at the race pace after a couple of difficult races where we were struggling with race pace.

"Finally in Canada, we seemed to have good race pace. Also, the fact that we were going forward in the race and not going backwards, makes a bit of a difference also for the perception of things."

Carlos Sainz (68) is fifth in the drivers' championship, while Charles Leclerc (54) is seventh, trailing leader Max Verstappen (195).