Clear skies, very humid and, surprisingly, no wind. These are the conditions that greeted the drivers today in Baku, including of course Scuderia Ferrari HP’s Carlos Sainz. “The weather is hotter than usual in these parts, but these conditions will be useful preparation for the next race in Singapore, but before then, we hope to do well here,” said the Spaniard when speaking to journalists in the paddock which hosts the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Realistic. Carlos did not make any bold predictions for this coming weekend, even if the SF-24 should be on the pace on the six and a bit kilometres of the Azerbaijan track. “On paper, I expect our package will be competitive, but let’s wait and see how it goes in free practice. We did a good job in Monza, working as a team and we must try and do the same here on a track where the closeness of the walls means that the slightest mistake is severely punished,” he said. “Our motivation is high and even if, realistically, I don’t think we are the quickest, I believe that the way the team works can have a greater effect than the actual performance of the various cars. I am confident we can do well”
Test bench. Sainz said he was pleased with the way the SF-24 performed in Monza, but again he was not prepared to speculate on what to expect from the rest of the season. “We need to take it one race at a time and in order to check the effectiveness of the updates we introduced on the car, we will have to wait until Austin. In the meantime, we’ll continue to push to the maximum.”