Carlos Sainz underwent surgery just two weeks ago in Saudi Arabia but made an epic comeback to win the Australian GP in dominant fashion. According to journalist Kym Illman, Sainz did so under tremendous pain. He even had plans of making some innovative modifications to the seatbelt of his SF-24, to help ease the pain from the surgery.
Illman spoke about Sainz’s incredible performance in Melbourne, in a video posted on his YouTube channel. Before the race, he recalled seeing a fragile Sainz walking around the paddock visibly in pain.
“He looked very groggy, very ginger, moving around. Almost hobbling, and he showed a couple of team crew his scar,” said Illman. “And then he showed them what he was going to do during the track sessions. That, he put some rubber underneath the seat belt buckle.”
Illman added that he was unsure whether Sainz ended up modifying his car’s seatbelt in the race or not. But, the Spaniard was not at his 100% as was evident after the race. Sainz took his time to get out of the car and avoided making sharp movements. Even during the podium celebrations, he was wary of injuring himself and was cautious throughout. He even admitted to feeling some pain during the celebrations, in an interview after the race.
Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc bring Ferrari close to Red Bull
Red Bull is still the team to beat, despite their poor showing in Australia last weekend. Max Verstappen retired from a race for the first time in 44 Grand Prix outings, which shows one of the reasons why the Milton-Keynes-based team was so dominant over the last two years.
In the first two races too, Verstappen won with Sergio Perez following him in second place on both occasions. However, Verstappen’s DNF and Perez’s P5 finish in Melbourne reduced the gap to Ferrari (in P2) to just 4 points in the constructors standings.
Of course, it is still early days in the 2024 season, and Red Bull’s dominant run could resume from the very next race onwards. But Ferrari has a spring in their step, and are confident of the progress they have made. Heading into the next few rounds, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc would both want competing for race wins to become a norm.
