Sainz finding run of back luck in F1 “difficult to digest”

McLaren Formula 1 driver Carlos Sainz admits his current run of bad luck at the start of the 2020 season is becoming “difficult to digest” and “hurts”.

Sainz believes he has already lost at least 30 points from misfortunate and reliability issues, having suffered a number of slow pit stops and cooling-related problems with his engine during the opening seven rounds of the campaign.

After a strong Spanish Grand Prix and having qualified seventh on the grid at Spa, Sainz hoped he had turned a corner in Belgium only for an exhaust failure to force him out of the race before it had even begun.

“It looks like everything is happening to me in the first seven races,” Sainz said.

“It’s staying to get a bit difficult to digest. Last year I got a run of 2-3 races with bad luck, or things not going your way, which as long as it is not your fault you can digest it pretty quickly.

“But this year in seven races, there’s little that has gone right I think apart from the first race in Austria and Barcelona.

“All the other races I’ve had an issue, I’ve had a problem, and I’ve lost at least 30 points in the championship, it starts to hurt a lot and affect me, I’m getting a bit upset by it.

“But at least it hasn’t been my fault, and I just need to keep digging and keep working in the same way.”

Sainz confirmed he will continue to run the engine that caused his exhaust failure at Spa once again during Friday practice at this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

“We have an answer but I’m going to let Renault explain to you precisely what that issue is and how it was generated,” Sainz said.

“We know the PU is alive and I’m going to run it tomorrow. Let’s hope it runs safely and nothing happens and we can have the same engine that I’ve been racing with the last couple of races.”