Carlos Sainz is “not at all” ready to race but believes he has made a “decent start” in testing with Ferrari.
The Spaniard has managed 112 laps in the SF21 over the first two days of running in Bahrain, and will only have four more hours on Sunday afternoon before the first Grand Prix weekend of 2021 in two weeks time.
Given the very limited track time, those drivers either joining the grid or changing teams were always facing an uphill challenge to be 100% ready for the new season.
But Sainz laid bare the extent to which he is still settling in at the Scuderia.
“I feel prepared for testing, definitely. Prepared for race one? Not at all,” he said after Friday.
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“Compared to the knowledge I had of the McLaren to set it up to my liking and exactly how to drive it under wind conditions, new tyres, how to change the front wing, the switches, I have no idea yet about the Ferrari.
“So very unprepared for race one, but at least we’re testing. I feel like I arrived as prepared as I could and I actually had a decent start.
“[I need to] keep improving my understanding, going through different compounds, fuel loads, different conditions because the wind changes the balance of the car massively and today was pretty windy out there.
“I need to just test all the windows of the car, all the windows of performance of the car, just to have a clue what to expect in race one.”
Sainz also moved to clarify comments he made during Ferrari’s team launch video earlier this month, which quoted him as saying his goal was to be world champion within five years.
“Charles [Leclerc] asked me ‘where would you wish to be in five years?’” he explained.
“Obviously my honest answer is, what do I wish? I wish I was world champion in five years, which is a very obvious answer for any Formula 1 driver if you ask.
“I think that was misinterpreted to say ‘I want to be world champion in five years’, which is a common mistake sometimes the media does or what people do when interpreting the messages and changing a bit around my words from that question.
“I wish I could be a world champion in five years of course, but I know it’s going to be a very, very tricky task to do. There’s a lot of competition in Formula 1 nowadays.”
Achieving such a goal is particularly ambitious given Ferrari is currently in a state of recovery from its worst season in 40 years in 2020.
But Carlos is buoyed by what he’s seen so far.
“I am looking forward to try and build a bit of stability here in Ferrari,” he said.
“The first couple of months have been very good, I’ve found the stability, I found that team that has welcomed me in a really nice manner and I’m feeling really comfortable.
“Let’s see how it goes, but I’m looking forward to it.”