The hometown hero Carlos Sainz is happy to be back on his home turf ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix and is feeling good ahead of the race: “Pretty good, pretty special, as you can imagine. It feels great to be back home. Also, a circuit where in the past it has treated me really well. I think it’s my ninth year here and I think, yeah, a lot of good memories.”
Feeling the power of a home crowd, Carlos Sainz agreed with 1992 World Champion Nigel Mansell that the home crowd gives you an advantage and that extra push. He also said how being in front of his home crowd just naturally boosts his mood the whole weekend: “I think it’s impossible to quantify the lap time. But I do know that it puts me, like, in a better vibe this weekend. Like, I am just in a better mood when I race at home. I do things with more interest. I do things with a bit more energy. I always try to put a smile with the fans, because you just know that they’re cheering for you and they’re giving you that extra bit of push.”
His home circuit is also the place he’s scored the most points so the Ferrari driver has a quiet bit of confidence ahead of the weekend: “But I do know that actually, Spain is the circuit where I’ve scored most points in my career – together with Monaco and Austin I think it’s up there – so it must do something good to me.”
Talking about Ferrari’s performance, the team have an upgrade coming ahead of the weekend. With aims to head back in the right direction, they are hoping the changes will bring about an easier progression for the rest of the season: “We have an upgrade. How good, time will tell, but we have an upgrade coming. It’s a bit of a new direction, a bit into what we believe should be the right path, into developing this car and making it a bit more of a driveable car, more consistent, better in the race, that we know is our main weakness. You’ve seen it hasn’t been an easy start to the season and we’ve been struggling but it is true that with this first step into this direction we try and correct the deficiencies we have.”
However, Sainz doesn’t believe the upgrades will be an instant fix for the team: “But we also know that this upgrade is not going to change our life from one race to another. It’s still the first step of many steps to come.”