Sainz knows Ferrari were quicker than Mercedes but ’23 result fair

Carlos Sainz says Ferrari losing to Mercedes in F1 2023 was fair considering the reliability, but he prefers that the team makes progress and has pace irrespective of reliability.

They were beaten by just the three points but Sainz says it was fair result even if Ferrari lost out to Mercedes for second in the 2023 F1 constructors’ championship. Even though he knows that they were marginally quicker, but reliability played a role in the outcome.

That allowed Mercedes to be a bit more consistent where Ferrari faltered from a good position. “I think it’s fair,” said Sainz. “I think we’ve had our moments with where we’ve been quicker. I think Mercedes have had their moments when they’ve been quicker. Overall, maybe a bit of reliability here and there – probably overall I think we’ve been a quicker car – but they’ve been a little bit more consistent than us anyway.

“I think it’s a season where the team has made a lot of progress. I think we’ve learned a lot from this car, from these tyres. We’ve finished the season a lot stronger than where we started and it’s something we can bank on for next year, expecting hopefully a more competitive package,” summed up Sainz, who when asked if they prefer to have pace with certain reliability problems or a year like Mercedes, who were a tad slow.

“Yes, 100%,” continued Sainz. “At the same time, I prefer a team that shows progress in terms of progress, pace, tire learning with a car that is anyway not fighting for the championship, than one or two races of reliability. But for sure we want to be the whole package — we need to improve how tight we arrive to the end of the season also.

“For sure the issue in Qatar, the issue in Vegas with the problem we had with the chassis change and [in Abu Dhabi] again, it’s not going to help our reliability and our scoring points. It’s something to learn from but at the same time, I’m proud with how the team has progressed through the season,” summed up Sainz.

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