Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz says he will adopt a more aggressive approach through the course of the year after taking a slightly conservative stance on his first stance with the team.
Sainz started from eighth but lost out to Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll on the opening lap, dropping to 10th spot.
Sainz worked his way past both, and profited when AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly lost his front wing, before being overhauled by the recovering Sergio Perez, to classify eighth.
“I think overall it has been a good weekend for me,” said Sainz.
“Maybe the result itself is nothing special, I think overall the pace this weekend has been stronger than what the result shows.
“Due to race circumstances and qualifying circumstances I was a bit on the back foot after the first three laps – probably taking a bit of a cautious approach into my first few laps with Ferrari, just wanting to make sure I finished this race.
“Then once I managed to clear two slower cars – who were the Aston and the Alpine – and I managed to get into clean air I was actually very happy with the car.
“I felt like I could extract the race pace of the car and we were quick.
“So like I said it was a good first weekend. There will be time in the next 22 races to get a bit more aggressive at the start and to be a bit better in those first few laps.”
Team-mate Charles Leclerc finished sixth in the sister SF21 from fourth on the grid.
