Carlos Sainz admits “it will be difficult to beat McLaren, but we’re not half a second behind” | Abu Dhabi GP. Carlos Sainz finished the day in fourth place in Abu Dhabi.

Optimism mixed with a dose of realism. That’s how the first day of practice in Abu Dhabi for Ferrari could be summed up, listening to Carlos Sainz. The Ferrari driver’s feelings are better than the stopwatch suggests.

The Spaniard wrapped up the last Friday of the season in fourth place, behind the “surprise” Nico Hulkenberg, who often delivers flashes of brilliance on a single lap. However, the key focus for the Prancing Horse this weekend isn’t overall performance but the comparison with McLaren, their rival in the Constructors’ Championship battle.

Ferrari is going all-in at Abu Dhabi, but unfortunately, the weekend didn’t start on the best note, with Charles Leclerc’s car requiring a battery change, resulting in a ten-place grid penalty. On the other side of the garage, Carlos Sainz had to sit out the first practice session to make way for Arthur Leclerc, complying with the rule requiring teams to allow a rookie to drive in two FP1 sessions per season.

Carlos Sainz, however, believes this didn’t weigh heavily on him, as he felt he quickly found his rhythm with the car: “Yes, I only had one session, but I’m happy with how quickly I got up to speed. By the second lap, I already had the best time. That’s good news because it means I trust the car and know how to drive it,” the Spaniard said at the end of the day. Furthermore, while FP1 is usually helpful for an initial look at the setup, the significant temperature difference between afternoon and evening sessions at Yas Marina means the data gathered is less relevant compared to other tracks.

However, as Carlos Sainz pointed out, when the SF-24 switched to soft tires on a cooler track in the evening, the familiar issues that have plagued Ferrari throughout the season began to surface. These issues prevent the car from excelling on a single lap. Leclerc wasn’t even able to set a competitive lap due to traffic interfering with tire preparation, leaving Carlos Sainz’s time as the only meaningful reference.

“Then, with the soft tires, we had some problems. I think we’re still not able to extract all the performance. As always, when the track cools and we mount the soft tires, our car seems to struggle a bit more,” the Spaniard added. He emphasized, however, that if Ferrari can find some improvements, the gap to McLaren could be reduced by about half from the current five-tenths.

“Probably we’re not half a second behind McLaren, but at least two or three tenths. That’s something we need to try to recover by tomorrow. It’s a deficit we also carried into the long runs. We need to find a few tenths overnight to be in the fight with them.”

Carlos Sainz isn’t surprised that McLaren is competitive here. Last year, they fell short in the decisive moments, lacking Ferrari’s pace, but this season, the car has made significant strides, especially in slow sections where they struggled in the past.

“I’m not surprised by the gap because this has always been a track where McLaren performs well, and Lando has often been very competitive here. At the moment, they seem to be the strongest this weekend, so beating them will be a tough task.”