Reflecting additional on the subject, the 35-year-old stated: “It is exhausting [to say]. Clearly, most of my time there was a bit extra of a battle or a problem. So, look, did I predict this? I am not going to say sure, as a result of I do not assume I did.
“So I suppose from that standpoint, it’s a little bit of a shock that in two years, lower than two years, they’re most likely at the moment the quickest package deal on the grid. However I additionally do not have a look at that like, ‘Oh man, if solely I might have had that.’
“That is the game, that is how it’s… You are taking your hat off to them. Anybody on this sport that is doing effectively and creating and making such an enormous step in a brief period of time, you need to praise that.”
Previous to Ricciardo becoming a member of McLaren, Sainz had been Norris’s staff mate between 2019 and 2020. Throughout his time with the staff, the Spaniard achieved his first podium earlier than occurring to develop into a Ferrari driver in 2021.
Whereas a number of years have handed since he labored with the papaya outfit, Sainz felt that the squad would finally style the degrees of success that that they had skilled of their illustrious previous.