Carlos Sainz admits that he learned some key lessons during the Australian Grand Prix weekend, despite his race ending in disaster. The Spaniard's troubles started during Saturday's qualifying, where the timing of a red flag resulted in him just missing out on setting a fast lap. He then struggled to match this pace later in the session, and lined up P9 on the grid. In the build up to Sunday's Grand Prix, Sainz suffered problems with his steering wheel, and faced problems in trying to get his Hard compound tyres working to the optimum level in the opening laps of the event. On Lap 3, the Ferrari driver spun going into Turn 10 and beached his car in the gravel, putting him out of the race.
Was Australia Sainz's most difficult weekend in F1?
It was clearly a tough few days for Sainz, with his fortunes contrasting dramatically with those of teammate Charles Leclerc, who clinched his second victory of the season in dominant fashion. When asked if this was the most challenging weekend of his F1 career so far, Sainz told media, including RacingNews365.com : "It's a difficult one to answer, because I don't remember exactly my other 100 and something races in Formula 1. "So it's tricky to know if it's the worst one, but it's definitely a weekend [where] it looked like it was going well. It looked like I had [become] a lot more at home with the car, and [had been] putting together some strong laps during the weekend. "[But then] everything turned out to be probably, yes, one of my most disappointing weekends in Formula 1."
Sainz: Problems in Melbourne can be a "booster"
Despite the challenges of his time in Melbourne, Sainz feels that it has provided him with a good learning opportunity. "The important thing is that I learned from it, [and] that we also learn as a team from it," Sainz explained. "To be more perfect, to be more strong, to be more robust in all the aspects, and keeping in mind that [there are] 20 races to go, that anything can happen. "We can only use this weekend as a booster, to make sure that we learn from it and [that] we have [a] more perfect 20 races left."
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