Will Ferrari struggle for race pace at the 2023 F1 Azerbaijan GP? Carlos Sainz gives his take

Carlos Sainz hopes the upgrades will pay off when it comes to improving the degradation problem on his car. The Spanish driver was clueless about the performance deficit and the feeling of the car in the qualifying ahead of the Azerbaijan GP.

Asked by Sportskeeda if their tyre degradation problem on the car had been fixed, the Spanish driver replied:

“Good question, very good question. We hope it will be, because that will mean we definitely haven’t only changed the setup towards making ourselves faster but also towards making the deg better. Because that is the biggest doubt that we have, we have changed the car quite around from the first few races and it is paying off, it’s paid off in Australia, it has paid off in Baku.

"That’s why I’m so puzzled that after doing such a good step in Australia with myself with the feeling with the car here, I’m trailing. Puzzling, but I think at least Charles managed to keep the good trend going.”

Having spoken to Sportskeeda after the Saudi Arabian GP, the Spanish driver had mentioned that their car suffered from an inherent overheating problem and tyre degradation.

With improved performance in Melbourne and Baku, Carlos Sainz was hopeful that the setup and changes in the car have fixed their degradation issues.

The Ferrari driver believes the changes on their car paid off in Melbourne and hopes that they will help in Baku too. He claimed that the new setup had made them quicker in qualifying and closed the gap with Red Bull.

While his teammate Charles Leclerc claimed pole position for the Azerbaijan GP, the Spaniard managed to qualify in fifth place on the grid and had a few spins during the session. Baffled with his qualifying struggles, the 28-year-old hopes to improve over the weekend.

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Carlos Sainz is unsure if following other cars in the race will be easy

Carlos Sainz

It is well known that the tyre degradation on the Ferrari compromises its ability to follow cars ahead, resulting in a significant loss of performance.

Speaking to Sportskeeda, Carlos Sainz claimed that there will be degradation during the race. But he hopes that his teammate could have an advantage if he gets away at the start and is in cleaner air.

“We know we have a car that is tricky to follow. So actually Charles, if he gets a good start, might actually benefit from that, for the first time in the year, to be fully in clean air. Apart from that tyre deg is going to be there for sure, and we know that is the strength of the Red Bull, so it will be interesting to see, as I said before, how much we have improved on that.”

While Ferrari's qualifying performances have been close to Red Bull or matched them, they have often lacked pace in a race. According to Carlos Sainz, low tyre degradation tends to be Red Bull’s strength and he is intrigued as to whether they will have an advantage in the race in Baku as well.