Carlos: “Our ability to react was the best thing about this season”

Carlos Sainz is set for one last push. “We are ready for a high intensity weekend,” he said in conversation with the media in the Abu Dhabi paddock. “We want to end the year in style here in Abu Dhabi, fighting for the goals that are still within our reach, in other words second place in the Constructors’ and fourth in the Drivers’.

Goals for the weekend. “The places we are fighting for this weekend only mean something at the moment, he pointed out realistically. “In a short while, no one will remember my fight with Fernando, Lando and Charles for fourth place, or even the one between Ferrari and Mercedes for second in the Constructors’. They are good goals to have for the weekend and they help in terms of motivating us to do everything as well as possible and I think we have shown we have the potential to make up the four points that separate us from our closest rivals. It won’t be easy, because at this track we expect that Red Bull and McLaren could be stronger than us, which means we could be fighting for places that are only worth a few points, so being just ahead might not be enough. But we will give it our best shot.”

Ability to react. Looking at the season as a whole, Carlos summed it up very clearly. “We can’t describe this season as positive because we were not competitive enough,” he maintained. “We grabbed the opportunity that came our way in Singapore, but for the rest, especially in the early stages, our season was not good enough. However, there have been some positives and I think our ability to react has been impressive. Going into the summer break, we were the fourth best team, but now we are much more competitive, because we have been constantly improving how we manage our package. We must learn from this season because it can be useful for the future. Even if you have a very competitive car, you can have some tough races and the fact we had to deal with several of those this year has given us a lot of knowledge about how to deal with unexpected situations and experience gained in the races is always useful.”