Laurent Mekies expands on what has changed for Carlos Sainz from start of the 2022 F1 season to how it is now.
It was a slow start to Sainz’s Ferrari’s stint in 2022 but the Spaniard has caught up with teammate Charles Leclerc after race wins and fighting at the front. Mekies agrees that he has had strong weekends off-late as the car is suiting him more now than before.
“So at first you are very right in saying that Carlos has had three extremely strong weekends: Silverstone, Austria, France,” said Mekies. “We are very, very happy with that. It did not show up so much on the final race classifications besides Silverstone because we had other things to deal with. But you are very right in saying that he has made great progress since the start of the seasons.
“We made no secret at the beginning of the year that naturally the car was not suiting him very well. We had to work a lot with him, with his engineers, with everybody back in Maranello to make sure we can give him something he is more comfortable with. And these things take time. And slowly, it seems that we are heading towards the right direction, which is another great sign for the team and the way we interact.”
“So I think that’s where it is,” summed up Mekies, who elaborates that Sainz has worked well with the engineers behind the scenes to improve and slowly they have been able to transform which is a positive sign not just for the driver but also the team.
“At first it comes from Carlos’ ability to analyse what the car does and what he needs from it,” said Mekies. “And then not only is he able to feel it, but he’s able to communicate it to the engineers and slowly we have been able to transform that into actions in terms of the way we set up the car, and in terms of the way that perhaps we tweak some of the developments and that’s how it happened.
“You are never sure it’s going to produce the results you hope until you actually see these trends coming. So it’s good positive information for us to see that the trend seems to be there,” summed up Mekies, who also clarifies that the improvement from Sainz doesn’t make him the leader as Ferrari sees both of them in equal terms.
“Does it make somebody a leader or not? No, it doesn’t, it is not what makes a leader or not,” said Mekies. “We know we have two very, very good drivers. We treat them in a way that we can maximise our championship positions and we want them as fast as they can possibly be.”
Here’s Mattia Binotto on nothing to change on Ferrari side
Here’s Carlos Sainz on Ferrari not having pace in Hungary
Here’s Charles Leclerc, Mattia Binotto on things going wrong in Hungary