The Spaniard was overtaken all weekend by Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc, who took pole in both the sprint and grand prix, finishing second in the sprint and third in the main event.

Sainz, by contrast, had to finish fifth in both races after a tough weekend exacerbated by a lack of practice runs and the imposition of parc ferme following a change in the FP1 block settings. Condition.

In the Grand Prix, he lost to compatriot Fernando Alonso, who forced a pass after resuming the race during the safety car.

“Seeing where Fernando was, I thought he would always finish ahead of me today,” Sainz said when asked by Autosport about his race.

“But, yeah, there’s nothing new. Really, when I first hit the press, I looked a bit regressed.

“Then once I started working hard, my weekend struggles came back and I just had to bring a P5 home, always on the verge of breaking down, or feeling like I lost the car.

“So (it was) a pretty long game, mentally stressful after a weekend of struggles. But I brought home the P5. I’m sure we’ll find out why that happened this weekend. I Trust in Miami, we’ll get back to shape.”

Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23

Photography: Mark Sutton/ motorsport pictures

While Leclerc had two solid races, Sainz stressed Ferrari still needed to improve its pace in the long-distance races.

“I think we have a lot of work to do in the game,” he said. “When you see that we were much quicker than the Astons in qualifying and the Astons were on Charles’ tail throughout the race, it just goes to show that there is still a fundamental gap in the car’s race pace. weakness.

“So I hope we make sure we continue to take small steps in the right direction. At least our qualifying pace looks to have unlocked some. But the focus is on Sunday and we’ll work on that.”

Sainz noted that he had particular problems at Turn 15 in Baku in Sunday’s grand prix, with several drivers brushing over barriers during the race.

“It’s a very tricky corner and it got very tight today,” he said. “There was a bit of a tailwind pushing us from behind. That meant it was easy to pinch the wall from the outside.

“That’s why when you’re struggling with confidence like I am today, you just have to take a step back, because at any point you can put it on the wall and throw it in the bin for 10 cents.

“I thought I made mistakes last year because of my inexperience on weekends like today, and this weekend I took it easy and made sure I didn’t make the mistakes of last year.”

Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23

Photography: Mark Sutton/ motorsport pictures

Asked if he had any clues as to why he was struggling in Baku, Sainz suggested sprint form was not helping.

“No, because we don’t have time to sit down and analyze,” he said. “We had to go to the next stage pretty quickly, fine-tuning the car with the front wing and switches to put it in a better place.

“But we haven’t dug into the data yet to see what happens this weekend. But yeah, I’m sure we’ll find out with my engineers.

“We’ll be back in Miami. It’s obviously a disgrace to have such a frustrating long weekend in Baku.

“In a way, I find it positive that the next game is coming soon because I can put this game behind me very quickly.”

“I think I need a normal weekend to get a feel for the car and if it feels the same as here then I’ll do a couple of sessions to experiment with the setup,” he added.