Carlos Sainz has stated that any theories linking his performance level with Ferrari's development of their 2022 F1 car are "completely fake". Sainz appeared to struggle to match the pace of teammate Charles Leclerc in the early stages of the season, where the Scuderia looked to have an edge over Red Bull. However, the Spaniard seemed to improve as the campaign progressed, and claimed his debut Formula 1 victory at the British Grand Prix. Sainz has dismissed the idea that the car's development direction was a factor in this, with his belief being that he was able to adapt his driving style more to the car.
Sainz: Theory on development completely wrong
"I've read this somewhere, where the car developed towards my style, and I think it's completely wrong," Sainz told media, including RacingNews365.com , after the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. "The car feels exactly the same as [in] the beginning of the season. We're just less quick compared to the Red Bulls or the Mercedes. "I just learned how to drive it, I changed my driving style, fine-tuned the set-up a bit more to my liking. "But the car didn't develop in my direction or anything like that, so I hope this doesn't get pointed out there because it's completely fake and it's not the real story of the year. "We simply got out-developed by Mercedes and Red Bull."
How Sainz tried to move closer to Leclerc
Sainz finished the 2022 season in fifth place in the World Championship, while Leclerc claimed P2. After adapting his driving style to suit the car during the season, Sainz admits that he also did this in an attempt to match Leclerc. "I think he deserves to finish second this year," Sainz explained. "He's been super strong all season with this generation of cars. He's been driving extremely well, and he made me have to adapt and change a bit my driving to try and be closer to him. "But [congratulations to him] because he did a great season on his side on his driving, and he deserves to be in front of Checo [Sergio Perez]."
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