Carlos: “We want to be front runners in the final part of the championship”

Carlos Sainz arrived in the Hermanos Rodriguez circuit paddock, highly motivated off the back of the team’s performance in Austin. “We said the Circuit of the Americas would be the test bed to see how good a job we had done of developing the SF-24 and I’d say it passed the test,” he said. “We could see in qualifying that, in the fast long radius corners we are not yet the best, but undoubtedly, we have made a clear step forward, which was evident, because in race trim, we were the fastest even in the first sector.”

Looking ahead. Because of this, Carlos said he was confident regarding the near future. “I think we are back to having a car that at all the tracks we have ahead of us, with the possible exception of Qatar, we can fight for the win, although that doesn’t necessarily mean we will succeed,” added the Spaniard. “As I was saying, in qualifying we are not the best and on some tracks, like Abu Dhabi, overtaking is very difficult. And hoping to win if starting from fourth is not always possible. But we’re definitely aiming to be front runners for the rest of the season.”

Mexico.  For this weekend, Carlos is aiming to be “up there with the best. If we manage it and can qualify on the front two rows, we can have our say in the race. It would be nice to keep the momentum going from Austin as I’m sure that anything is still possible for the Constructors’ title. We will know more after tomorrow’s free practice and we will be giving it our all.”