Sainz: I am one of the quickest out there

Sainz took pole at the 2022 United States Grand Prix one week ago, but was taken out of the race by Mercedes' George Russell who was over ambitious at the start.

But the Spaniard remains confident of his pace and the performance of his F1-75, insisting he will be a contender for the win at this weekend's Mexican Grand Prix.

Quoted by Formula 1's official website, Sainz said: "I think there is a strong chance it could be a six-way driver battle for the win.

"I think it will be an interesting one; I think we could be up for one of the most competitive weekends unless one of the teams suddenly adapts to these altitudes a lot better than the others," he added.

"We have the speed," Sainz insisted. "I would be a lot more worried and a lot more disappointed if on top of [last weekend’s retirement] we didn’t have the speed, but we’ve turned around the season and I am one of the quickest out there.

"It’s what keeps me motivated and keeps me positive about the year," the Ferrari driver maintained.

Sainz's teammate Charles Leclerc, on the other hand, is wary of Red Bull and their devastating Sunday pace and race execution, which seems to be Ferrari's Achilles' heel at the moment.

"Difficult to know for now," Leclerc responded when asked by the media about his race predictions. "I still believe that Red Bull will be the team to beat on Sunday.

"They always seem to find something from the Saturday to the Sunday that we didn't quite find it yet. But we are getting there. I don't know whether this track will be better or worse. But anyway, I believe it will be close on Sunday," he predicted.

Asked to specify whether it was Ferrari's pace or race execution that concerns him, the Monegasque said: "I was mostly speaking about the Sunday execution not the performance in itself.

"But as I've been mentioning since a few races, we are working a lot on the strategy, also on the communication side of it. And this I felt like we are taking a step in the right direction.

"But of course there is still the gap of performance on the Sunday to the Red Bull that we still need to find and improve," Leclerc admitted.

"So on that we are working, we haven't found yet the solution but we are working well. And again, once we are focusing on one thing, we normally improve very quickly on it. So I'm confident that the results will come soon," the five-time grand Prix winner concluded.