Carlos Sainz expects Mercedes to win in Brazil. And Max Verstappen isn’t sure Red Bull will have a big advantage this time either.
In Mexico, Mercedes finished second behind Lewis Hamilton, who clearly outperformed the Ferrari cars starting from the front row of the race. Over the past two weekends, the Star Car has appeared to be Red Bull’s number one follower on Sundays, and this weekend, Brazil will also be the place where they won the last two races.
Carlos Sainz highlighted that a week ago in Mexico he played into Hamilton’s hands after his early stop, and that the red flag came, eliminating Ferrari’s advantage over him, but at the same time he admits that Mercedes is currently leading. “Last time in Mexico they were lucky to get the safety car. But it is true that they were fast all weekend, especially at race pace. I hope we will be more lucky here and beat them. But it will not be easy because this track was very good for them in the past”.
“They have always been fast here and I expect them to challenge Red Bull for the win this weekend.”
Spanish expectation.
He added that Ferrari, who won pole position the past two weekends, is not in bad shape, but competition is their weakness, which is why they feel weak against Mercedes in their battle for second place in the championship. “We’re trying to keep this streak going. It’s not going to be easy. We always seem to struggle more in the race than we do in the time trial. But we accept that and we’re just trying to make the most of it.” We know it’s going to be like this for the rest of the year: This year’s car “I’m simply weaker in the race than in qualifying, and we just have to make the most of the weekend.”
Last year’s Interlagos winner, George Russell, was also asked about Sainz’s expectations and advised him to be cautious. “You can’t say that in Formula 1 these days. The battle is always more balanced at a competitive pace. With the race, we will now have two chances to put the car in the right position, but enough to think about just last week: Ferrari took the front row, which surprised everyone, “Sixth and eighth place were also a surprise for us. We don’t have any expectations, we just want to do our best job ever.” Announce.
He added regarding the end of last week:
“I’m just excited. This place will always have a special place in my heart. But this weekend we’re looking forward, not back. We’ll try to repeat that, but just because we were fastest here last year doesn’t guarantee we can do it again.”
“That would be the goal, but it will just be free practice and it’s important to get off to a good start. However, on a fast weekend, that’s always a challenge.”
George Russell (Image: XPB)In fact, this was exactly what underpinned Mercedes’ success a year ago: they fine-tuned the basic settings of the car over the weekend, while Red Bull did not. Max Verstappen knows it could happen again at any time over the weekend.
“We didn’t have a great weekend here last year. Because of the fast weekend, it will be difficult to do everything right. We have some ideas about what we didn’t do well last year, but we will have free training to make sure that “Things are going better this year.”
“There’s a lot of tire wear, you have to prepare the car for the slow corners and I don’t think our car will be amazing in the slow corners. We’ll see. We didn’t have a great weekend last year, so we definitely need to do better.” – The three-time world champion assessed Red Bull’s chances modestly.
