In Hungary, Carlos Sainz was one of the main characters of a race that turned out to be a great opportunity for the midfield competitors. After a crash in qualifying that saw him starting Sunday’s race from 15^th on the grid, the Spaniard worked his way up to P4.

But he was very self-criticial of what resulted as the second podium of his season after Sebastian Vettel’s disqualification regarding a fuel infringement promoted him into P3, saying it was everything but the case of what his best weekends used to look like.

"This weekend, I did a mistake in quali, I paid the price in the race,” Sainz said, as reported by motorsport.com.

"And there was one strange thing going on the pitstop that didn't allow us to release, we missed a podium opportunity because of that, and all of a sudden the whole weekend doesn't taste that good, you know, because I feel like we could have scored even better points."

"So this weekend is a very good example of how the first 10/11 races have felt like I had very good speed... But for some reason, something didn't quite go to plan and we ended up where we ended up."

After a dreadful season last year, the Scuderia has fought to improve and be as close as it can be to the top, and Carlos Sainz has, surprisingly, been scoring great performances on his way to take Ferrari and himself to the best form, during the two-years-contract the Italian team and the Spaniard negotiated midway through 2020.

But even though the 26-year-old has two podiums so far halfway into the season, has being in the points in 9 out of the 11 races till the F1 summer break and is now ahead of Leclerc on the drivers’ championship standings, he feels those facts do not necessarily mean he’s been at the top of his game.

"It doesn't feel like my strongest season in F1 definitely," Sainz said to motorsport.com after the Hungarian GP. "I feel like there's a lot of points, a lot of missed opportunities here and there.”

"I think I said that before this race that I feel like I haven't maximized a weekend, yet as a Ferrari driver I haven't put a whole weekend together, and this is something that I used to do very well. And for some reason, maybe it's just being part of a [new] team, it just takes time, to maximize weekends."

But Sainz can’t deny the progress Ferrari has made and the good work everyone in the team has done to be in the fight with McLaren for P3 in the constructors’ championship: "I am happy with the way that I am integrating in the team and the first half of the season.”

"I'm very happy, particularly with the speed I've had with the car and since race one I felt like I was on top of the car and I was able to push it to the limit and be on the pace straight away in pretty much every circuit I've been to." He concluded.

11 races, 2 podiums... the best ever start in #F1 for @CarlosSainz55 scoring over 80 points along the way 👊

Let’s keep going 🤘#essereFerrari 🔴 pic.twitter.com/d4jp0SlWly

— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) August 3, 2021