Carlos Sainz has pointed out he \u201cdidn\u2019t have this tough time\u201d against Max Verstappen after seemingly all the Dutchman\u2019s team-mates have failed.<\/p>\n
Verstappen has become known as somewhat of a team-mate killer having seen off six in his F1 career so far but Sainz was one of few who was not put in the shadow of the current World Champion.<\/p>\n
Carlos Sainz reflects on team-mate battle with Max Verstappen<\/p>\n
Sainz<\/a> and Verstappen both got their F1 debuts in 2015 for Toro Rosso and were close when it came to qualifying with the Spaniard ahead on 10 occasions to Verstappen\u2019s nine.<\/p>\n Come race day though and Verstappen<\/a> was dominant, finishing ahead of his team-mate 10 times compared to Sainz\u2019s six, giving the Dutchman 49 points to Sainz\u2019s 18.<\/p>\n But even if he had a losing record, Sainz was one of the few to even be close to Verstappen with the Dutchman scoring 3,188.5 points in his career compared to his team-mates\u2019 1,795.<\/p>\n Sainz though said he did not have \u201cthis tough time\u201d against a driver who he thinks is one of the best of all time.<\/p>\n \u201cI think everyone is having a really tough time being Max\u2019s teammate,\u201d Sainz said on the High Performance Podcast.<\/p>\n \u201cI can only say that when I was Max\u2019s teammate, I didn\u2019t have this tough time. I was obviously incredibly surprised by how quick he was. I mean, he\u2019s an insane driver.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s probably going to become one of the best ever in history, if he\u2019s not already one.\u201d<\/p>\n Sainz went on to say that his debut year was \u201cprobably the most intense year of my life\u201d with every session feeling like a battle against Verstappen.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember so many things from that year that were so intense. I think at the time, Max was 16, 17, we had the mentality to deal with that level of intensity, but I remember not the level of pressure, the level of detail we were looking at things.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery session, every FP1, we were going for it like crazy! Like, for me, FP1 was qualifying.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to beat him in every FP1, every FP2, every FP3. I remember we were both really quick in the wet; we both had been really good in the wet in previous categories.<\/p>\n More on Carlos Sainz from PlanetF1<\/p>\n Carlos Sainz reveals why Williams workload higher than at Ferrari<\/a><\/p>\n