Carlos Sainz believes Ferrari will be “back on form” at the Dutch Grand Prix after a difficult Sunday in Belgium.
The Spaniard could do nothing to hold the Red Bulls behind at Spa Francorchamps as first Max Verstappen and then Sergio Perez blasted ahead and onto a one-two finish.
But while Sainz was sure the Scuderia would look for answers to their lack of pace, there wasn’t any sense of panic.
“I don’t know how much per lap but it was a lot per lap,” he told Sky Sports of Ferrari’s deficit. “We will have to go back and analyse why.
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“I think it’s a one-off. I think they just had a super-strong weekend. We had a bit of a weaker one on a track that probably didn’t suit us a lot.
“So we need to analyse why and take some conclusions, but on our race, we did everything we could do today but we were just not fast enough.”
In the closing laps at Spa, Sainz was more focused on consolidating third against a closing George Russell rather than challenging Perez in front.
But Carlos remains convinced Ferrari can concentrate on Red Bull rather than worry about Mercedes in the final eight races.
“Today it was Mercedes, but I think at Zandvoort we can be back on form and beat Red Bull again,” he told Sky Sports on who is Ferrari’s main competition.
“I think we just had a bit of a difficult weekend and this track was perfectly suited to Red Bull, whereas Zandvoort is a better hunting ground for us and we should be stronger there.
“It doesn’t mean we should beat Red Bull or comfortably beat them, but get back in the fight? I am convinced we should.”