Sainz: Leclerc showed me my limits

Carlos Sainz did not have the easiest of starts for his 2022 F1 season, driving the new generation ground effect F1 cars, despite Ferrari's F1-75 being arguably the fastest car on the grid early on; and he admitted he was struggling to get on top of his car's handling.

On the other hand, Charles Leclerc was in sync with his ride from the start taking pole and winning two of the first three races in 2022, while Sainz was making errors.

In an interview with Motorsport-Total, Sainz reflected on his previous season and set a target with the upcoming 2023 campaign; he said: "I want to start this season [2023] a lot stronger, a little bit more the way I ended this one. As a better driver with more knowledge and with a lot more knowledge of this generation of cars, that should see me next year make it stronger.

"I'm not entirely satisfied with my season," he admits. "I won't lie, the first half was too hard for me too compared to what I expected.

"Every car I've driven I've always been up to speed straight away," the Spaniard added. "This was the first time in my career that I was two or three tenths off pace and I really had to duck my head and try find out where those two or three tenths were."

Sainz admitted that the high level at which teammate Leclerc was performing served as a benchmark for him to improve and get up to speed.

"Charles [Leclerc] drove extremely well in the first half of the season which showed me my limits a bit more and in the end I found them. I've gotten to a good level with this car and that's the base and the pace now that I can drive from the start next year," he explained.

As the season progressed, Sainz became better and better, while Leclerc seemed to slow down towards the end, as Ferrari hit trouble with reliability, strategy, and some errors from the Monegasque himself, but Sainz insists his team did not favor him with car development.

"I read somewhere that the car evolved towards my style and I know that's completely wrong!" he said. "The car feels the same as it did at the start of the season. We're just not as fast compared to Red Bull and the Mercedes.

"I just learned how to drive it. I changed my personal driving style and tuned the set-up a bit more to my liking, but the car didn't evolve in my direction or anything.

"So I hope that this doesn't get blown out of proportion, because it is completely wrong and not the true story of the year. We were just overtaken by Mercedes and Red Bull, that's it," the 28-year-old maintained.

Sainz went on to grab his first pole and win at the 2022 British Grand Prix, while adding two more poles in Belgium and Austin.

"Of course it's victory," he said when asked to name the highlight of his 2022 campaign. "The first victory in Formula 1 is something special, especially in Silverstone for Ferrari. It's a very special place.

"But honestly, I did a lot better in Brazil or Austin than, for example, at Silverstone," he reflected. "My best weekend this season was probably Brazil, where without the penalty I probably would have started P2 and could have fought for the win in the main race.

"In Austin I got pole and we would have been very quick in the race if I had been driving the race," he said referring to being taken out by Mercedes' George Russell.

"So I think I've been fast in the second half of the season and I'll keep the second half races, but I'll keep myself Of course, always remember the first win."

Ferrari's challenge faded after the summer break, and the Reds failed to win another race, as Max Verstappen cruised towards his second consecutive F1 Title.

Sainz explained: "Of course we didn't get another win, which was the goal, but I think that in the second half we were simply overtaken by Red Bull and Mercedes in the development race, which made our second half of the season relatively weaker than the first.

"I think we as a team know why," he pointed out. "We're trying to take action for next year to improve our pace of development, but also whenever we had a chance to win, maybe we weren't the strongest team at running races, so we know those are the two main goals for next season."

Ferrari now have a new team boss in the form of Frederic Vasseur, who replaced Mattia Binotto at the helm of the Scuderia ahead of the 2023 F1 season, which will no doubt make preparations for the new campaign more tricky with the transition period probably affect the pre-season preparations.