Carlos Sainz Jr. hopes Scuderia Ferrari will be able to get back out on track and compete at the front of the field this weekend at the Circuit Zandvoort, with the Spaniard not anticipating any kind of repeat dominance from Oracle Red Bull Racing at the Dutch track.

Max Verstappen was in dominant form last weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, overcoming a grid penalty for engine component changes to charge from fourteenth on the grid to claim victory by more than twenty seconds, while Sainz was only third behind the second Red Bull of Sergio Pérez.

Sainz does not believe Ferrari will be as far off the pace as they were in Belgium this weekend at Zandvoort, and he believes they should be back in the fight for the win come Sunday afternoon.

“After the race at Spa-Francorchamps it’s great to have the chance to get straight back onto the track here in the Netherlands,” said Sainz. “This is a circuit with totally different characteristics and I expect that we will be back to being much closer to our main rivals from this year.

“We shouldn’t forget that for 13 races out of 14 we have been competitive and I can’t imagine that we will see at Zandvoort a similar performance gap to the one from Belgium.”

Sainz has responded to recent criticism aimed at Ferrari, and in particular their pit wall decision making, with the Spaniard feeling the team get more right than wrong and the focus always seems to be on the negatives opposed to the positives.

“When you are at Ferrari everything is amplified: the affection of the Tifosi when you win and their disappointment when you don’t succeed,” said the Spaniard.  “It’s the same for the criticisms of the people watching, because I can assure you that we are making fewer mistakes than others but we are always in the spotlight.

“When you are at Ferrari it’s like this, and we know it. But we must never forget the jump in performance that we have made compared to last year. We have come back to fighting for victories and we want to continue to improve, pushing all the way to the end of the season.”

“I think we will return to our usual level of competitiveness” – Charles Leclerc

Team-mate Charles Leclerc also hopes the Zandvoort circuit will give Ferrari the chance to return to the level of competitiveness they’ve shown for much of the 2022 season this weekend, and he hopes to be the one at the front of the pack come Sunday afternoon.

Leclerc says they will do everything they can to learn from last weekend in Belgium and attempt to return to the kind of form that has seen him win three times this season so far.

“The Zandvoort track favours higher downforce so I think we will return to our usual level of competitiveness,” said Leclerc. “Everyone in the team has a big desire to do well and it’s also Carlos’ birthday so it would be great to celebrate that with a one-two – albeit with me ahead of him…”

 “We haven’t yet finished analysing all the data we collected but if nothing else we have some interesting pointers, not least because the next race will be at Monza where it’s crucial for us to do well given that it’s our home race.”

Red Bull’s Verstappen will certainly be the fans favourite this weekend, but Leclerc does not foresee any kind of negative attitudes towards him or Ferrari from the partisan crowds.

“We have a good relationship with Max, there’s lots of respect, so I don’t expect to be booed – even if my target will be to ruin the party both for him and his fans… It’s clear that if they are wearing orange they aren’t here to cheer for Ferrari, but fair enough!” he said.

“Next week at Monza I expect that most of the spectators will be wearing red and supporting us.”