Carlos Sainz insists that he hasn't given up hope of a late push for the 2022 Drivers' Championship. Ferrari emerged as one of the quicker teams this season, and Charles Leclerc has become their main challenger for the Drivers' Championship after taking three wins. Teammate Carlos Sainz achieved his first F1 win at the British Grand Prix, but has broadly struggled to live with the pace of Leclerc. Leclerc also has seven pole positions to Sainz's one, and the Spanish driver is currently over 100 points away from championship leader Max Verstappen. However, Sainz still holds hope that he can mount a challenge for the Drivers' Championship with the aid of more adverse races. "Statistically, anything is possible. That's why my intention hasn't changed," Sainz told the official F1 website. "I'm still going into every weekend trying to win the race. It's a crazy year we are doing. "If you see how consistently the top two teams are on top, it should be an easy championship where one wins, one finishes second, but it's not like that. "There are a lot of points swings, which makes me believe everything is possible. It's a very different year to anything before as the racing is better, more things happening in the race, and I'm going to believe that until it's over."
Sainz: I'm performing at a similar level to the top guys
Sainz's deficit to Leclerc has been down to a mixture of pace, mistakes and reliability problems. Whilst the 27-year-old has struggled with two reliability-related retirements, he also had to start the French GP from the back of the grid due to power unit component penalties. However, he also had two self-inflicted retirements; the first being a spin at the Australian GP, with the second coming from a collision at the Emilia Romagna GP. When asked if he thought he could mount a championship challenge next season, Sainz commented that a better start to the season would benefit him. "I think so," he added. "This year, my start of the season put me 50 points behind straight away and it's difficult to make yourself look like a championship contender when you are minus-50. "But if you look closely at the last few races, I am performing at a very similar level to the top guys. I feel like I’'m there. It's just that price I paid at the beginning of the season is costing me this year."
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