Melbourne [Australia], March 28 : After winning the Australian Grand Prix, Carlos Sainz is optimistic that he can try to finish on the podium and win more races in his remaining season with Ferrari the Spaniard even made a joke about being "still jobless" for 2025.
Sainz's 2024 has been quite the start. Before the season even began, he found out that Lewis Hamilton's multi-year contract signing would mean he would no longer be a member of the Scuderia.
After finishing on the podium in the season's opening race in Bahrain, the 29-year-old was forced to miss the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix due to an appendix diagnosis that needed surgery.
After two weeks, Sainz emerged victorious in Australia. The Spaniard said that considering the ups and downs he had already experienced in 2024, the victory felt very sweet.
"You cannot imagine how proud I am [of that race]. Especially because you know how tough of a start of a year it's been [for] me, with the non-renewal at the beginning, [then] putting together a very good pre-season testing and pre-season programme from my training, arriving to the first race [and getting a] podium," Sainz said as quoted by Formula 1.
"Now you say, 'okay, I'm ready to fight this year', [but then there was the] appendix, another low, and then suddenly you come back with uncertainty - am I going to be back or not? Then you come back and win. Life is sometimes really nice, really beautiful," he added.
Asked if the win could act as a good advert for his talents as he looks to secure a seat for 2025 Sainz joked, "Well you know, I'm still jobless for next year, so I guess this does good for me!
"But, jokes aside, I know that when I'm given a good car I can get it done. [I] proved it in Singapore, proved it here - when I'm confident and it's a good car I'm happy, and [I was] just very happy with the car today," the Spaniard said.
Sainz is pleased with the team's progress after Ferrari had a more difficult season start in 2023. He wants to make the most of his time with the team before taking on a new challenge the following year.
"It is a more structured team. We've done so much progress with the performance of the car, but also with race execution, weekend execution - it's a much more solid team than where we were one, two years ago, so I'm proud of that progress," the three-time race winner said.
"I'm going to maximise this more solid team that we've created together during this year to try to put together some more podiums and wins, and see where I'm going next," he added.