Can Ferrari turn things around on Saturday after a sub-optimal sprint qualifying performance at the Chinese Grand Prix? The teams and drivers didn’t know what to expect as they were heading to the repainted Shanghai International Circuit after five years. With only one hour of practice under their belts, the drivers faced extreme conditions during sprint qualifying as the track transitioned from dry to wet conditions between the sessions. So naturally, Carlos Sainz seems to be unsure about how they will fare in the Sprint Race on Saturday.

Ferrari, who were tipped to be the closest competitor to Red Bull, found themselves down in 5th and 7th. After the session was concluded, Carlos Sainz explained why Ferrari struggled with changing track conditions as he gave a clear warning on their chances for Saturday’s Sprint Race. Sainz explained that everything seemed to be going well for them until the rain came.

He was satisfied with the car’s performance until that point, but was unable to get the tires up to temperature during the wet session. This made it challenging for Sainz to push the car to its limits in the final part of qualifying. “We made it well through SQ1 and SQ2 and then in SQ3 the rain arrived and we didn’t manage to switch on the tires… We dropped the tire [temperature] a lot queuing. And then the tire never came up so I couldn’t really push,” the Spanish driver was quoted by Diario AS.

Furthermore, speaking about their chances in the Sprint race, Sainz mentioned, “If it’s wet we’ll have to find something, if it’s dry we’ll be in the fight.” It’s worth noting that Sainz is already under a lot of pressure to perform every single weekend because he still doesn’t have a job for 2025 and needs to impress teams like Red Bull to have a shot at a front-running team.

Despite not being able to qualify on the front two rows like the races before, Sainz has some ideas to improve his results in the main qualifying session tomorrow and the race on Sunday.

Carlos Sainz wants to make adjustments to his SF-24 after the Sprint

The limited track time with just 1 hour of practice ahead of qualifying was going to be difficult for the drivers, as Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz had pointed out during the driver’s press conference on Thursday. And unsurprisingly, Sainz was not happy with how his car was set up for the Sprint Qualifying either.

The Spanish driver said that he was not expecting anything extraordinary from the Sprint. However, he had a few things he’d like to change in his car after the race. “The sprint race is in the morning, then parc ferme opens and we can change the car,” he said, while adding, “I would like to be able to make a couple of adjustments to the car after the sprint race because I don’t feel comfortable.“

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“I have a couple of ideas to improve the car for qualifying. In the sprint, we will have to survive with what we have and fight from fifth place.” What’s interesting is that Ferrari is the only team which is left with an extra set of unused Medium and Hard tires and Frederic Vasseur hopes that it will give them an advantage for the Sprint. “We have the advantage of still having a set of new medium tires for tomorrow, while our rivals will have to use a set of used mediums. This means that we will have a wider choice in terms of tires for tomorrow,” Vasseur told Sky Sports Italy.

Can Carlos Sainz fight his way up to the podium places tomorrow? Share your predictions for the Sprint race.