Carlos Sainz admits that his struggles to match teammate Charles Leclerc in Qualifying haven't been helped by his problems to get to grips with the Ferrari F1-75.

The Spaniard comes into a crucial home race fifth in the drivers' standings and over 51 points behind teammate and championship leader Leclerc, with Sainz also suffering two opening lap DNFs in Melbourne and Imola.

But when speaking at the FIA press conference which MotorLAT attended, Sainz believes that despite his struggles to get to grips with the new generation of Formula 1 cars, he isn't too far away from his teammate's pace.

"Yeah, the target is not only to out-qualify Charles but to out-qualify everyone who is with a competitive car, but so far this season – it is not a secret that he found his groove very quickly with this new car. I'm struggling to get on top of it. Even if I'm struggling, you know I'm a tenth off in pretty much every qualifying, so it's not like I'm miles away." 

"I feel like I'm within reach and that it could change any weekend as soon as I figure a bit my head around the exact way that I need to drive the car and the exact way I need to set it up for my liking. So the record might not be great, and I'm not particularly proud about it. But we are about, yeah, the last few qualifyings have been fighting for pole position, so it's not that I'm lacking a lot."

With 100,000 fans expected to turn up on race day, which includes his designated grandstand that sold out within two hours of tickets going on sale, there where will be extra pressure on Sainz to reach the podium; however, the Madrid native is hopeful that he can go one better and win his home race and with it his first Grand Prix in Formula 1.

"I think everyone and myself, we want that first win, and we will try and get it,  we will try and fight for it. Hopefully, the upgrades give us a bit of a hand against the battle with Red Bull. I've been feeling some progress has been done in the last few races, so yeah, we're ready for it."