The Ferrari driver absent in the pits. The team: “Waited on the track”
Carlos Sainz is not well but will be on track today on the first day of free practice for the 2023 Mexican GP. The Spanish Ferrari driver missed appointments with the media on Thursday. However, the team guarantees that the Iberian, fresh from third place in last Sunday’s United States GP, will regularly be behind the wheel in the first tests scheduled for the Italian evening. “Carlos Sainz was not seen in the paddock, as he wasn’t feeling well this morning but is expected back on track tomorrow,” Ferrari wrote on its website at the end of yesterday.
The Mexican GP is characterized by particular conditions: it takes place at an altitude of 2,240 meters and the rarefaction of the air is a factor to be considered both for the effort to which the drivers are subjected over the weekend and for the effects of the altitude on the aerodynamics of the single-seater. The teams are encouraged to focus on a maximum load configuration, comparable to that used on a slow track like Monte Carlo. On the other hand, the rarefaction of the air allows – in the Mexican race – to reach very high speeds in a straight line. In Mexico City, Ferrari recalls, 372.5 km/h were reached on the track, a record speed for an F1 single-seater.
In the Ferrari pits, waiting for Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc spoke. “I believe that if we manage to put everything together we can bring home a good haul of points here in Mexico City. We have seen how in the last period the potential of the car is easier to exploit and this has allowed us to be more consistent in the performance”, says the Monegasque, who finished in fourth place in the United States before being disqualified for the uneven surface of his red car. “In Austin we got some things wrong, even from a strategic point of view, and we paid the consequences, but I think there is the potential to fight with our direct rivals here too.”
Source-www.adnkronos.com