Carlos Sainz has played down the "drastic and dramatic" media coverage of Max Verstappen 's Red Bull dominance, believing his Ferrari team can end the world champion's winning streak.
Verstappen has won all but two of this season's races, with the others won by his Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez. The Dutch-Belgian driver claimed a ninth successive race win on Sunday, finishing first in the Dutch Grand Prix.
Sainz finished fifth in Zandvoort, and has yet to achieve a podium finish in 2023. The Spanish driver remains optimistic for the remainder of the season, though, and insisted he still goes into every race ready to capitalise on a Red Bull error.
“I don't fully believe that Max is going to win every weekend," Sainz said. "I know [the media] see it in a very drastic and dramatic way. Obviously I know what my chances and probabilities are [to win], but there is still a probability that Ferrari can win a race this season and that I can be there to win it.
"No-one is perfect and hopefully at some point during the season, Red Bull make a mistake and I go into every weekend thinking that I need to be there to grab it. That is my mentality and my focus is trying to be there for any given opportunity because even in the most dominant years of Mercedes, Red Bull or Ferrari, there was always one race where you could make the difference or something would happen.
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"As a driver, especially in these kinds of years, you live on this type of motivation and thinking. If not, I have plenty of motivation to fight for podiums, for top fives. I love Formula 1 and I love going to race every weekend with Ferrari and love the opportunity to develop this year's car, give feedback and see the impact that I can have on next year's car. This is also what a driver lives for and I love that challenge."
Will Red Bull's dominance continue until the end of the season? Have your say in the comments section
Carlos Sainz has had his say on Red Bull's dominance (HOCH ZWEI/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)Sainz isn't the only driver to express optimism in spite of Verstappen's latest win. Lewis Hamilton, who came in sixth, had positive things to say about his own car's pace after the Dutch Grand Prix, saying: "It didn't start off that well, but I'm pretty happy with the drive that I did to get back into the points and get sixth.
“It could have been higher for sure, if we made the right decision at the end of the day," Hamilton added. "We should have pitted [straight away] but we didn’t. We paid the price for that, and we did our best to come back.
"I feel like today was redemption, in the sense of it was terrible yesterday. I managed to dial the car in a bit better today and overtook a bunch of people.
"To start 13th, I was dead last at one point, to get back up to sixth, I'm happy with that. I think today I had the pace [for the podium]. I was on pace with Max in the race, but we were just out of position."
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