Sainz in battle with McLaren: "One of the hardest cars to overtake"
17:51, 24 Jul 2021
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The battle this season between McLaren and Ferrari is an exciting one and is perhaps a little underexposed thanks to the performances of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. McLaren have a 15 point lead for now, but the gap with Ferrari is still very much there for the rest of the season. The battle is an extra special one for Carlos Sainz.
Last year he drove the orange car, but this year he will be in the red car of the Italian team. He has so far scored more points than his successor at McLaren, Daniel Ricciardo, but also knows that the battle with Ferrari is a tough one. Speaking to Motorsport.com the Spaniard admitted he finds it a challenge to overtake them.
"Unfortunately it has happened to me a few times now that I am stuck behind a McLaren and am not able to pass it. It's not news, they have a very high speed on the straights and a lot of power coming out of corners. It's probably one of the most difficult cars to overtake."
Sainz lingers behind Ricciardo
The aforementioned Australian got in Sainz's way quite a bit during the Grand Prix at Silverstone. That, along with a failed pit stop, ultimately cost him many points.
"First on the medium [tyre] and then we actually managed to outstrip him with a very strong pace, but unfortunately after the slow pit stop I had to drive behind him again. On the hard tyre it was even harder to overtake him. It just felt like that hard tyre at high speed couldn't handle the load of the dirty air and I was understeering a lot more, so I couldn't keep up with him."
It is not the first time and probably not the last,that he will encounter the Australian in the McLaren.
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