Sainz: Life sometimes brings crazy surprises!

Carlos Sainz won the Australian Grand Prix for the third victory of his career, while Ferrari completed its first double since 2022, when it started the year with a strong result in Bahrain.

Carlos Sainz (1st): “Great race, and I felt great too! Of course I’m still not in the best physical condition so it wasn’t easy for me today, but I’m happy that I was alone on the track almost the whole race so I could pick up the pace, be careful of the tires and keep the situation completely under control. All in all it wasn’t my toughest race.

I am very happy, very proud of the team and happy that Charles and I achieved the first two places. This shows that hard work pays off, even though life sometimes brings crazy surprises. Just think what happened at the beginning of the year: I got on the podium in Bahrain, then I had my appendix removed, and then I got back behind the wheel in Australia and won.

In general, there are many different events, but I like it and am very satisfied. And now I will recommend that all riders have their appendix removed next winter! (laughs)

On the first lap of the race I felt I could stay behind Max Verstappen’s car, but just to be safe I tried to use the DRS system. And when he lost control of the car in Turn 3, I was able to get closer and get ahead of him.

When he was already behind, I think he had problems with his brakes and that was the end of the race for him. It’s even a shame, because today there could have been a very interesting fight between us for 1st place, but at least I’m happy that I won. And Max already has a lot of victories to his name.”

Charles Leclerc (2nd): “Of course I’m happy, but especially for the team. We know we can win, and that’s great. Carlos returned to action after surgery and had a great weekend with an incredible race.

On the second part of the distance I had problems; I couldn’t work well with the tires, but in the last part it went better. A winning double is the best possible result.

In the first stint we had to defend ourselves against the competitors behind us, so we decided to pit a little earlier, after which I had problems with the tires, while Carlos showed excellent speed.

I think he did better than me all weekend and definitely deserved this win. I am very happy for him and for the team. Before the start of the weekend we set ourselves the task of earning more points and in the end we achieved the best possible result – it couldn’t have been better!”