After a disastrous weekend in Hungary, Red Bull Junior Team driver Carlos Sainz Jr has his eyes set on returning to the top of the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup table.
Red Bull Junior Team driver Carlos Sainz Jr doesn’t get many weekends off, but with no action in the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup or Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup, he visited Silverstone for the British Grand Prix – partly to get a look at the venue for the next Eurocup round, but mostly to hang out with Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso.
Carlos continues to make spectacular progress in the NEC, comfortably leading the championship with six wins from ten starts, five pole positions and seven fastest laps, but in the Eurocup, the wheels, or more accurately, the gearbox came off in Budapest.
Having led the championship going to the Hungaroring, disastrous 8th and 14th places saw him overtaken by the consistent Dutchman Robin Frijns.
'Maybe the bad moments teach you more than the victories'
“The Eurocup is quite tough at the moment because we were leading the championship right from the start, and racked up points very well at the first three events, then one weekend we don’t manage to get on the podium and down the order we go. It’s not a very good feeling,” says Carlos.
The two rounds in Hungary were, he says ‘disgusting!’. “There was no single thing that went wrong, actually everything went wrong right from the start of the weekend, and once it started going that way, we just couldn’t turn it around again. But I’ve turned the page and I’m looking forward now, preparing for the next race.”
All Sainz: Carlos and Carlos © Renault Sport
With more grace than most 16 year olds (and better access than most to good advice), Carlos accepts that his bad weekend in Hungary will prove a useful learning exercise. “There are always things you can learn from weekend like that – in fact it’s maybe the bad moments that teach you more than the victories because you have to be more analytical. I’ll try to use it to make me stronger.”
He admits the second half of the Formula Renault season will be tougher than his debut races. “We started the season really, really well which was, I think, unexpected – but this is a sport where nobody is stupid, y’know? In the early rounds we were one step ahead, but everybody raised their games, caught up and now we’re level or maybe a little bit behind them. We have to improve again and we absolutely can’t relax.”
On the upside, Carlos says that the tougher the competition, the better victory. “It’s not going to be easy, but then if you’re fighting for a championship it’s not supposed to be easy, is it? We are 13 points behind and everything is open.
“Look at Sebastian Vettel, he’s a long way clear in the points but Fernando Alonso is still fighting for a championship. In comparison my deficit looks tiny!”
Carlos Sainz Jr on the Hungaroring © Renault Sport
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