Frederic Vasseur: Ferrari should have Carlos Sainz available for Australian GP

Sainz sat out of last weekend's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after he was diagnosed with appendicitis.

The Spaniard was forced to undergo surgery and thus was replaced by Ferrari junior driver Oliver Bearman, who performed spectacularly on his F1 debut.

Even though he was still recovering, Sainz was in the F1 paddock on Saturday, overseeing affairs from the Ferrari garage.

After the race in Saudi Arabia, Vasseur was asked about Sainz's possible return for Australia.

"This I don't know, honestly," said Vasseur. 

"The recovery so far is amazing, the fact he was able to come today to be with the team is a very good sign, and a very good support for us.

"Now, he will fly back with me tomorrow [Sunday] and he will have one week of complete rest, and we will take a decision on when he has to fly to Melbourne in one week's time. But I'm quite optimistic.

He added: "Already, at this stage, it was amazing for me, because I found out after the session he was completely destroyed. If you look at the result of FP1 and FP2, he had a very decent pace, and he was even able to do long stints, and this was mega.

"But now let's be focused on the future for Carlos. The most important thing is not to push today, it's to recover and to recover properly. I don't want to rush, but he's an adult, and he'll take the right decision."