At first glance, it might be surprising to see a Ferrari driver sitting in the upper-mid section of the driver rankings at the end of the 2023 season.
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After all, Carlos Sainz Jnr earned a place in history books this season. He will go down as the only driver ever to beat both RB19s to win a grand prix in 2023 – an achievement that will always be remembered for.
But while Sainz pulled off something no other driver could do that September night in Singapore, the rest of his season certainly had its ups and downs. And in such an incredibly competitive field of drivers as there was in 2023, those negative moments become more difficult to ignore.
Ferrari were not as strong as either he, team mate Charles Leclerc or new team principal Frederic Vasseur would have hoped for throughout 2023. Each grand prix seemed to be a dice roll as to whether or not the notoriously peaky SF-23 would be at its best for the weekend, while Red Bull’s dominance left little opportunities to fight for the top places on the podium.
Early in the season, Ferrari found themselves not just well behind Red Bull but also slower than Aston Martin and Mercedes. Although Leclerc picked up only six points in the opening three rounds – compared to Sainz’s 20 – Leclerc was comfortably the stronger of the Scuderia drivers over the early phases of the championship.
In the season opener in Bahrain, Sainz was behind Leclerc at every point of the weekend and only finished fourth courtesy of Leclerc breaking down late in the race. In Jeddah, he was half a second slower than Leclerc in qualifying but started well ahead of him on the grid due to a grid penalty. Sainz allowed Lance Stroll to nail him around the outside of turn 13 on the opening lap and finished one place ahead of Leclerc, who started eight positions further back on the grid.
Melbourne turned into a nightmare as, after restarting fourth on the grid for the final restart, he made contact with Fernando Alonso at the first corner, sending the Aston Martin spinning out of the order. But when the stewards handed him a five-second time penalty, it was effectively as good as a ten second stop-and-go penalty as the Safety Car finish meant he dropped outside of the top 10, missing out on points.
The underwhelming results continued over the early phase of the year. When Leclerc took pole in both the sprint and grand prix qualifying sessions in Baku, Sainz didn’t seem like he was driving the same car. Although his fifth place result was perfectly reasonable, finishing almost half a minute behind Leclerc was not the sign of a strong weekend’s work.
At least his home grand prix in Barcelona was very strong. He narrowly missed out on pole and despite finishing in fifth, it was still a very good result to finish behind both Red Bulls and Mercedes, who were clearly the two quickest teams over the weekend.
But Spain seemed an anomaly. Sainz was also making mistakes – maybe more than a Ferrari-calibre driver should. He crashed at the Swimming Pool in Monaco during practice, slid off track in the race when the rain came and finished behind Leclerc ever though he had started in front of him – again, after a Leclerc penalty. In Montreal, Sainz gave his mechanics more repairs to do when he had another practice shunt and was investigated multiple times over the weekend for impeding rivals at the chicane. He lost fourth in Austria after having 15 seconds of time penalties for six track limits offences.
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In Hungary, Sainz again slid off into the barriers in practice and missed Q3 in 11th – one of only three times he did so in 2023 – then headed off into the summer break on a low note by retiring in Spa after damage from a turn one clash with Oscar Piastri. Although he sat just seven points behind Leclerc in the championship at the time, it did not reflect how untidy Sainz’s performances had been at times through the first half of the season.
But when Sainz returned to the co*ckpit for the second half of the season, it was as if he had found his steel again. When he arrived at Ferrari’s home race at Monza, he was on fire. He was fastest in the final two practice sessions and stunned Max Verstappen in qualifying to take pole position with what could have been the most memorable qualifying lap he’ll ever have. Despite being unable to keep the Red Bulls at bay, Sainz won a thrilling wheel-to-wheel battle against Leclerc for third to take his first podium of the season.
The next weekend at Singapore, a precious opportunity arrived. Red Bull did not get their car in a good window which opened up the number one position to anyone who was able to claim it. Over a weekend where Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes were a close match, Sainz’s driving made the difference on Saturday and Sunday as he led every lap from pole position, showed an extremely cool head over a long, tough race and executed some clever tactics in the closing laps to break Red Bull’s winning streak. Given the pressure he was under and the fact he had been presented with the opportunity to win through genuine pace, not luck, Sainz’s victory was one of the truly outstanding performances of the season.
The rest of the season was solid enough. While Leclerc continued to have the edge on him in both results and race pace, Sainz was at least making notably fewer mistakes than the early part of the season. He had every reason to feel hard done by when he was forced to take a penalty in Las Vegas due to hitting a loose track covering on the brand new street circuit, which dropped him from the front row of the grid to 12th. But then a misjudged first corner on a slippery track meant he bumped into Lewis Hamilton, spinning and dropping to 18th as a result.
Carlos Sainz Jnr
| Best | Worst | |
|---|---|---|
| GP start | 1 (x2) | 16 |
| GP finish | 1 | 18 |
| Points | 200 | |
After all the better work he had done over the second half of the season, Sainz ended the year with perhaps his worst weekend of all in Abu Dhabi. He crashed heavily in practice after losing control over a bump – which, in his defence, was smoothed out before the third practice session – but he completely lacked pace over the rest of the weekend. He was knocked out of Q1 in 16th then ran a strategy that relied on a sudden Safety Car which never came, before retiring in the closing laps after never being near the points. That disastrous end to the season cost him three places in the final championship standings, dropping him to seventh.
Although Sainz ended the season just six points shy of his team mate, it did not seem a fair reflection of how much less consistent he had been than Leclerc over the year. Even though he clearly stepped up over the second half of the year, it was telling that Sainz never out-qualified or finished ahead of Leclerc once following after famous Singapore win.
However, long after 2023 is confined to the history books, Sainz’s season will not be remembered for its low points, but for that one glorious night in Singapore.
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