But young Spaniard says Day Four was his best in STR10 yet
Monday 16 March 2015 14:26, UK
Toro Rosso rookie Carlos Sainz insists the crash which brought his Day Four to an early close in Barcelona couldn’t overshadow what he believes was his best day of testing yet in Formula 1.
Just hours after countryman Fernando Alonso had crashed coming round the Circuit de Catalunya’s fast turn three, Sainz went off the road at the same point of the circuit, although his car suffered more significant damage.
Like Alonso, Sainz was taken to the circuit medical centre for a check-up and, after being given the all-clear by doctors, the 20-year-old returned to the paddock to explain how the high winds gusting around the track on Sunday had caught him out.
“The important thing is I’m okay, it was quite a hard accident on turn three,” he told Sky Sports News HQ. “Today there were very high winds which didn’t make our life very easy. It was very inconsistent.
“Unfortunately on one of my long runs with the hard tyre – which is obviously not very grippy here – I lost the car in snap oversteer, went into the wall and damaged the car quite badly.
“But these things happen. Today was my turn. You have seen many good drivers in the past crashing cars and it sometimes happens in testing, you just have to learn from it.”
With all the attention in the build-up to the season having been on his even younger team-mate Max Verstappen, Sainz has grabbed fewer headlines through testing and had already blotted his copybook with a spin on his previous day in the car at Barcelona.
However, having completed 88 laps up to his Sunday crash including a number of shorter runs on the soft tyre, Sainz felt it had been a breakthrough session for him in the STR10.
“The day had been the best day of testing up until that point. I felt from the morning compared to day two a completely different car and I was a completely different driver with much more feeling on the braking and in all type of corners,” he explained.
“Even with the high winds we had in the morning, I felt pretty confident in the car and managed to push in some good short runs. That gave me a lot of confidence.”
The reigning Formula Renault 3.5 champion now has just a few days to wait for his next chance to build on that momentum with the final test of the winter, again in Barcelona.
“I cannot wait for those two more [days in the car],” Sainz added.
“We are planning to bring a decent upgrade which will make things much easier. From there on we can start working and preparing for the Australian GP. I’m sure I’ll be ready by then.”
