This is why Sainz was back in the paddock so soon after his operation

The 2024 season started strongly for Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz. Despite his Ferrari facing several problems, including overheating brakes, he managed to finish third in the opening race in Bahrain.

Sainz on missed Grand Prix in Saudi Arabia

After Red Bull, Ferrari is the fastest team in the field at the moment. Sainz, therefore, regrets missing a race, as scoring points in Jeddah was certainly possible for him. "It's not a nice feeling, obviously, not to be able to race. Especially after such a strong start to the season, seeing how competitive the car was again in Jeddah. Thinking and doing the calculations of how many points you've lost by having the surgery and also knowing that even for the next race you're not going to be able to do a simulator, not to prepare the race. You're not going to be able to train for 14 days, so it's not ideal." So his surgery will most likely still affect his performance in Australia.

A day after the operation, Sainz was already found in the F1 paddock again. Not to race, of course, but to encourage his team. "The doctors recommended me to go for a walk after the operation. I said rather than walking in my hotel room, I’ll walk into the paddock and watch the race with my engineers and learn something and help Bearman or help my engineers with anything that I can," the Spaniard told reporters in Melbourne.

For his replacement, the 29-year-old Ferrari driver also has a lot of words of praise. "I think he did great. I think he did a really really good job. I agree with Charles that it's also thanks to the way these drivers are prepared nowadays, with the amount of simulators and the amount of testing that that we do with the old cars of 22. But then, under pressure with only FP3, you need to get it done, and he got it done really well, so I think he did great."