‘It’s a confidence thing’: Carlos Sainz vows struggles on wet track will be one-off

Carlos Sainz is sure that his struggles on a damp track at the Singapore Grand Prix will be a “one-off” after an uncharacteristic showing from the Ferrari driver.

Sainz is widely-regarded as one of the grid’s better drivers in wet weather, but appeared to struggle for speed at the Marina Bay circuit.

The Spaniard eventually finished third, but could not challenge either teammate Charles Leclerc or Sergio Perez, who took victory in the Red Bull.

The 28-year-old admitted that he lost a bit of “confidence” in the slippery conditions during the race, causing him to drive more cautiously to avoid crashing and looking “like an idiot”.

“It was just a matter of pure pace and confidence,” Sainz, fifth in the Drivers’ Championship standings, said.

“I think here confidence is key and when you have a couple of moments, it snowballs and then you have to take a bit more margin and then you start losing extra pace compared to other tracks because next time around, you might be in the wall and you might look like an idiot.

“So it’s a confidence thing that I will work on. I will have a good look with my engineers to see what I could have done better, what we can do in these sort of conditions because as you said, it is one of my strongest points as a driver.

“And I think it’s going to be only a one-off.”

Sainz secured his maiden pole position at the British Grand Prix after a qualifying session in the wet, subsequently holding on for his first victory in Formula 1.

The former McLaren driver’s mixed season leaves him one point behind Mercedes’ George Russell in a tight battle for fourth spot in the world title chase.

Sainz is, however, more than 30 points back from colleague Charles Leclerc.

Early hopes that Ferrari would mount a genuine title challenge to Max Verstappen and Red Bull now appear to have been misplaced with the Dutchman likely to secure his second consecutive Drivers’ Championship with several races to spare.

But Sainz was nonetheless pleased with the performance that he and Leclerc produced in Singapore as both Ferraris finished on the podium for the first time since the Miami Grand Prix in May.

“It’s good news to see that the race was well executed on both sides,” Sainz said.

“There are still things I’m convinced that we need to keep improving and do better. But the team is taking massive steps forward. And we’re learning from every situation.

“And as Charles said, these last five races, or these last six counting with this one, they are going to be great preparation for us in order to be better at the front next year, because it’s clear that the car is there, the drivers we’re there, we just need to keep improving the execution and whenever we have the opportunities, nail them.”