Carlos Sainz Jr: Lacklustre FR3.5 title-clincher will be forgotten
New Formula Renault 3.5 champion Carlos Sainz Jr believes the manner in which he sealed the crown last weekend at Jerez will soon be forgotten
The Red Bull junior went into the last double-header of the season with a commanding championship lead, thanks to winning seven of the first 15 races of the campaign.
But Sainz and his DAMS team struggled all weekend, as he qualified 14th and 15th for the two races and failed to score a point as a result of being penalised after finishing ninth in race one.
Title rival Roberto Merhi's disastrous weekend meant that Sainz still became FR3.5's youngest champion and the first Red Bull-backed driver to seal the crown, but he believes the over-riding achievement of winning the title is what people will remember about his 2014 season.
"In the first race I was quite pissed off because I knew I was going to score the championship with a P9, and I was not happy about it," Sainz told AUTOSPORT.
"This week everyone will talk about what happened this weekend, but in one month all anyone will remember is who won the championship, and the numbers we have posted this year.
"OK, we haven't won the championship with our performance at Jerez, but we won it with all the other races and the victories."
Sainz is now waiting to hear from Red Bull regarding his future, as he hopes his championship-winning season will earn him a graduation to Formula 1 with Toro Rosso.
"I have to stay calm, because from now on I cannot do much more," he said. "I think I've finished my job.
"I will keep pushing in the simulator and when I get the opportunity to test for Red Bull in Abu Dhabi as my prize for this championship.
"I have put my cards on the table. The results and the numbers are there, so now I just have to wait."
JEREZ INVESTIGATION
Sainz added that he wanted to help DAMS get to the bottom of its lack of pace from last weekend, even though his time in FR3.5 is now over.
"It's a bit weird," he said. "We are looking to analyse it, because even though the season has finished we want to know what happened.
"We didn't find rear grip the whole weekend - it looks like we didn't make the rear tyre work.
"We didn't have pace in qualifying, which has been our strong point all season.
"When we switched to new tyres we were not getting the normal balance shift that you get. We were getting more understeer.
"We are not sure if it was a problem of not switching the tyre on, or overheating the rears.
"We are not happy, but I congratulate DAMS because we won both championships this season and I've enjoyed it so much."
Read more of Sainz's thoughts on his championship success and his hopes of making it to Formula 1 next year in an exclusive column in this week's AUTOSPORT magazine
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