Australian Grand Prix: Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz brands his weekend a ‘disaster’ after early retirement

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz endured a tough weekend which ended with him retiring on the second lap of Sunday’s race in Melbourne; Team principal Mattia Binotto backed the Spaniard to bounce back at Imola in two weeks’ time

Carlos Sainz was left to rue a difficult weekend after his Australian Grand Prix ended with him spinning out of the race on the second lap.

The Spaniard could only qualify ninth for the race while Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc secured pole position, eventually going on to take a comfortable victory in Melbourne.

In contrast, race-day was beset with problems for Sainz which saw his steering wheel replaced moments before the formation lap began.

That was compounded by the 27-year-old dropping places at the start and pushing too much too soon in a bid to overtake Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll with his hard-compound tyres not up to temperature, resulting in him running off track and then sliding into a gravel trap.

“We haven’t been great this weekend, it’s been a bit of a disaster,” Sainz said. “So, we have to learn from it, and I was the first one to make a mistake.

“It should be better. We just need to make sure we don’t do the kind of mistakes we have been doing this weekend with the problems I had on my side of the garage and stay a bit more patient when we need to be patient. The car is there to win every race.

“The cars are a bit more tricky, the tyres are a bit harder, they’re difficult to manage in the starts and today I paid the price a bit.

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Sky F1’s Karun Chandhok analyses how Carlos Sainz suffered a terrible race at the Australian Grand Prix.

“Of course, there is human error, especially at the beginning of the season until we learn these cars, but that’s no excuse. I shouldn’t have done the mistake and we shouldn’t have the problems with the steering we had yesterday and today.”

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto was delighted to see Leclerc take his second win of the year and cement his place at the top of the early-season drivers standings but sympathised with Sainz over his struggles.

However, Binotto is confident the first European race of the season at Imola for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on April 24 will see a turnaround in fortunes for Sainz.

“He is certainly pretty disappointed today, and we understand his disappointment because it was important for him to prove he was fast again here today,” Binotto told Sky Sports.

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Charles Leclerc was surprised by Ferrari’s dominance over the Red Bull at the Australian GP and wants to keep the momentum for the home race at Imola.

“He was fast on Friday, he was fast on Saturday morning, he could have done a good qualifying but got unlucky.

“Then when you lose focus and you are P9 and there are problems with the steering wheel on the grid and starting on hard tyres, these things that should not happen but happen.

“I know Carlos, he will be back, and I am excited to see his pace in Imola.”