Sainz happy with upgrade package: 'The team did a tremendous effort'

Carlos Sainz will start from the second row for Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix, after qualifying in third behind only Max Verstappen and his teammate Charles Leclerc. The Spaniard had upgrades on his car going into the weekend which have clearly helped and he showed his appreciation for the team's work after the session.

"The team did a tremendous effort to bring an upgrade package to this race when it was not meant to be and probably has helped us to be here today, so thank you for that," Sainz explained in the post-qualifying press conference, before adding: "Now we will have to wait to the race to see how much real progress we've done because we know there is where our struggles happen."

When questioned about the upgrades and how they've aided performance, he said that it feels 'a bit more together' in high-speed corners compared to at his home race in Spain. "Barcelona, we were struggling a lot in the high-speed corners and this weekend, the high-speed corners have been a better situation for us, better confidence and a more consistent car.

"Again, that's part of the job we wanted to do but also, the race pace is what we want to improve and we will need to see how we compare to Max, the Aston and the Mercedes."

As for the qualifying performance itself, the Spaniard reflected in a positive way by his third-place finish: "I felt comfortable and good out there today since FP1, which is a good sign because it looks like we're getting into a better rhythm as the season progresses. [It was a] good qualifying and good lap but obviously, you can always find a bit more lap time when you look back at it. I think we can be proud as a team with the progress we're making."

Sainz explains his thoughts on track limits

Despite not majorly struggling with track limits himself, drivers had numerous lap times deleted during the hour session, sometimes even causing Q3 to be lost, in the case of Sergio Perez. The Spaniard explained his thoughts on the situation and even suggested adding a 'feel' to the white line so the drivers could become more aware of the placement of their car.

"I think there is the issue of visibility, that we don't see exactly where our tyres are, so it makes it very difficult to judge whether we are in or out. We have the issue also that we don't feel the white line, so at least if we could feel a white line, if we are on top of it or not, that could also help us as a judgment.

If you are going 2cm wide [at certain corners], you are in the gravel or you are on the kerb and are losing lap time, but still we get penalised for track limits, which for me also doesn't make sense because you are not gaining an advantage by going off the track limits. So I think the rule of the track limits should be whether you are gaining an advantage or not."

Sainz added further to his point by sharing his disappointment in how long it takes for the FIA to let the teams know of the track limits violations, he said: "The main issue was how long the FIA was taking to decide. I was P2 and because we didn't know and the FIA couldn't tell us whether I was going to get the flag thrown away or the lap thrown away, I had to go and use another set of tyres, which obviously is quite a bit of an issue going into tomorrow.

In the end, the lap was not deleted, so hopefully we can improve that because it makes our life extremely difficult in the car and we need to keep finding a solution."