Carlos Sainz finished 2nd at the 2021 Monaco GP but admitted that his podium finish was the ‘least enjoyable’ one in his career.
In 2021, Sainz joined Ferrari after spending two years at rival team McLaren. It was at Monaco that he truly announced his arrival at the Italian outfit, qualifying in 4th and finishing P2 behind Max Verstappen in the race. This was Sainz’s first podium with Ferrari and also his first in the Principality.
Despite taking second place, in a recent interview with Marca, the Spaniard admitted that he didn’t particularly enjoy that weekend.
The former Renault driver feels that he was on course for pole position during his final Q3 run before teammate Charles Leclerc crashed, bringing the session to an end. Starting a race on pole in Monaco is a huge advantage for any driver and Sainz feels that he could have gone on to win his first F1 race.
“Monaco is the least enjoyable podium of my career,” he said. “I was really pissed off on Sunday. What happened with Charles and all that in qualifying.”
“I remember that I didn’t recover from the disappointment for three days because it was my first chance to win a race and to take pole.”
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Leclerc is one of the fastest drivers Carlos Sainz has ever gone up against
Sainz spent two decently successful seasons at McLaren before jumping ship to Maranello. At the British team, he earned his first-ever F1 podium at Interlagos in 2019 and put in strong performances guiding McLaren to a P3 finish the following year.
In spite of his driving, his results often went under the radar and a lot of people labelled him as ‘underrated’. However, he caught the world of F1 by storm by finishing ahead of Ferrari’s ‘golden boy’ Leclerc in their very first season together as teammates.
Luck favoured the Madrid born driver in certain situations but he was incredibly consistent throughout, earning 4 0f Ferrari’s 5 podiums in 2021. Sainz on the other hand feels that his debut season was very challenging, owing to the fact that he went up against a driver as fast as Leclerc.
“At Ferrari, I’ve come up against one of the fastest drivers I’ve ever faced,” the 27-year old added. “A very complete driver.”
“I came from two very good years at McLaren. I wasn’t afraid to take on anyone or anything. The first half was tough. I had to adapt, but in the second half, I started to go very fast and feel very comfortable with the car.
“That allowed me to do results and races at the level I expected of myself,” he concluded.
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