Carlos Sainz admitted he and Ferrari “haven’t been perfect” after an early retirement from the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Starting P9 after being unlucky with a red flag in Q3, the combination of a terrible start and opting for hard tyres saw the Spaniard lose five places on the opening lap.
Then, on the following lap, Sainz tried an audacious move around Mick Schumacher at Turn 9 only to go off onto the grass before sliding across the track into the gravel.
“We had similar problems with the switches in the car as yesterday,” he explained in the paddock. “Some switches were not working.”
“We had to change the steering wheel one minute before the start, which meant the second steering wasn’t well configured for the start.
A disappointing end to Carlos Sainz’s Sunday on Lap 1 ?
Keep your head up Carlos, plenty more races to come! ?#AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/0F7mNT6oxx
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 10, 2022
“I had the wrong start map setting, which was giving me anti-stall in both starts, which meant, unfortunately, we triggered anti-stall.
“I was on the back foot and I tried to make up the places in the first three laps and I clearly made a mistake when the tyre was probably not ready to start overtaking,” he added.
“I misjudged the grip and I made a mistake which caused me the retirement.
“So clearly not perfect, I haven’t been perfect this weekend. We haven’t been perfect as a team, clearly, and we need to analyse what we did wrong and see if we can come back better.”
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Sainz’s problems were in stark contrast to teammate Charles Leclerc who dominated the race from pole position to win by 20 seconds.
And Carlos does think he would have made it back towards the front in an ideal race.
“For sure this car, in the worst possible scenario today, was to do top four with a good comeback,” he claimed.
“Without the issues of yesterday, without the issues of today, we should have been in the fight for the win.
“So to go away with zero points is very disappointing. We need to be more perfect as a team and this weekend we clearly haven’t been.”
