Carlos Sainz: I thought the podium was possible

This season, Carlos Sainz finished on the podium in every race he started. In Japan, the Ferrari driver took third place, losing only to his rivals from Red Bull Racing.

His teammate Charles Leclerc, after starting from eighth place, finished fourth and was named “Racer of the Day” based on the results of a fan vote.

Carlos Sainz (3rd): “I had a good race. I am very satisfied because at first it was difficult because of the degradation of the rubber, but then clouds appeared in the sky and the degradation decreased. I even thought the one pit stop strategy would be faster, but we were on the two strategy.

I had to overtake a lot of cars, which wasn’t easy, but this is a common situation in Suzuka. It was necessary to pass the last chicane perfectly in order to accelerate effectively into the first corner.

I thought a podium finish was possible, but I knew it would be difficult to achieve that because I had to overtake the Mercedes drivers in the second stint and it was not easy to keep up with them.

In the end I managed to overtake both Lando Norris and Charles because I was fast on the Hard tires. I liked that the hard tires gave me the opportunity to attack, I overtook and finished on the podium.”

Charles Leclerc (4th): “I don’t think I could have done better today. The driver must always look back, evaluate the past weekend and understand in which areas he could have done better. The only thing I could have done better this weekend was prepare the tires better for the exit round qualifying attempt.

During my career I have not had to pay special attention to qualifications very often, as this is usually one of my strengths. But in Australia and here I had problems. I have to work on preparing the tires better for a fast lap in qualifying.

This year our car is more efficient in racing than last year. We as a team believe that we know in which direction we should continue to work. This season we have obviously taken a step forward, and I do not believe this step has been at the expense of qualifying. The problem in the two previous qualifiers is rather how I prepare the tires for the attempt, and this is something I need to work on.

Red Bull is too far ahead at the moment, but we are very good at maximizing our chances and earning as many points as possible. The team is preparing updates for the car and I hope they will allow Red Bull to put up a big fight and we can take more points from them.

It may be possible to pull off a surprise and fight them for the title, but if we look at the situation realistically, this scenario seems too optimistic at the moment, but we will not give up.”