Carlos Sainz believes that Ferrari has all the cards to fight on equal terms with Red Bull at the beginning of 2024. However, it will be necessary to give up some strong points in 2023 to have a better car in 2024.
Ferrari still has an objective for this season: beat Mercedes and finish 2023 in second place in the Constructors’ Championship. The last opportunity to achieve this will be this weekend at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
At Yas Marina, however, everyone’s gaze begins to project a little further, beyond the city’s skyline, to start looking at what the future will be, 2024. This also happened to Carlos Sainz Jr, the only Ferrari driver to have secured a victory this season.
On the eve of the final race of the season, the Spaniard said that for the 2024 car, he hopes to have some characteristics of the SF-23, although the car has proven to be largely below expectations. However, he further analyzed the situation, revealing that some of these points will likely be abandoned to have a more competitive car in races.
“There are aspects of the SF-23 that I would like to see on next year’s car. Certainly top speed, braking performance, and performance in 90-degree and short-duration turns. I also believe handling on curbs is a strong point. So the car has very, very strong points.”
“But I think if we want to have a car for the whole year, maybe we have to give up some of these characteristics to make sure we are fast everywhere, especially in races. I think in races, we need to focus on understanding what we are doing with this car. What are we doing to these tires that does not allow us to compete in races at the level of Red Bull and McLaren in Brazil, for example, in Austin, in circuits where it is clear that we do not have race pace.” – he explained.
Carlos Sainz has always been a grounded driver. In this case, too, he preferred not to commit himself when answering the question related to the performance of the upcoming Red car, which will be unveiled in less than three months.
“I think we’ll have to wait for the tests to understand more about our possibilities and the capabilities of the car. I think it’s incredibly difficult to know. The car in the simulator behaves differently, for sure.” – he pointed out – “But I believe that until we put the car with 100 kilograms of weight and used tires, it will be impossible to understand how the car actually behaves with the tires, with the pace, and how our race pace will be influenced. We will only know in Bahrain when we put it on the track. In the meantime, we can focus on improving the car’s performance in the wind tunnel and try to improve it more and more.”
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Yes, caution, but this does not preclude optimism. According to Carlos Sainz, Ferrari has everything it needs to fight on equal terms with Red Bull from the start of the next season. McLaren, thanks to the great performance recovery made in the middle of the current season, has shown everyone that exponential improvement is possible if the car’s development is done correctly. That’s why the Spaniard believes in the capabilities of the Scuderia.
“I believe that fighting with Red Bull from the beginning of 2024 is a realistic goal. Yes. Will we succeed? Only time will tell. I want the team to think it’s possible because I believe it is. In addition, we have shown that if McLaren was able to take these steps during the season, I am perfectly convinced that Ferrari can do it during the winter break.”
“I have confidence in this team. I trust our ability to turn things around at home. There are still circuits where we are pole by 0.3 compared to Red Bull. It’s just a specific characteristic of the car that is really good. We just have to make it a complete car,” Carlos Sainz concluded.
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