Sainz sees improvement Mercedes: 'We have to work hard for it'

"I think there was not much more in it this weekend. I think we did a good job yesterday in qualifying and in the sprint. And today, we set our targets in trying to beat the Mercedes. We managed to beat one, even if one of them got ahead. And then I was behind the two of them, passed Lewis, and then it was all about trying to keep up with George."

Unfortunately for Ferrari, Russell was faster than Sainz in the race. The Spaniard continued: "But like we saw yesterday in the sprint, it just looked like they had this half-a-tenth to a tenth of pace advantage. That it's these three, four, five seconds that he was in front the whole race. And yeah, I thought that was a battle for a podium, which he was going to win. And in the end, it became a battle for a win eventually. We tried everything we could, but we know we've been struggling the last few races. At the moment, Mercedes are a little bit quicker than us."

Sainz: 'Shows Ferrari have to work hard'

Ferrari came out with upgrades during the Imola Grand Prix weekend. In Monaco, it seemed these had worked out very well. Charles Leclerc then took victory and Sainz finished third. Since then, however, Ferrari had not taken a podium until the Austrian Grand Prix. "It just proves that the last two weekends haven't been easy. We've been always the first Ferrari finishing behind the first Mercedes. Even if you count Canada, you could argue those three weekends in a row. So I think Red Bull and McLaren were in a league of their own this weekend. Then there was a step. There was George and me battling for that P3, P4. And yeah, that was not the situation at the beginning of the year. So it shows that we need to work hard. We need to understand what's happened in the last couple of races. And once we understand it, hopefully already for Silverstone, we can take a step and improve our performance." Concluded Sainz, who is still yet to announce where he'll be driving next year.