Carlos Sainz feels Ferrari going in "right direction" amid one key concern

Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz is “confident” that the Maranello team can take a step in the right direction and get closer to rivals Red Bull when it comes to straight-line speed.

Last season, the Austrian side’s RB18 impressed for being fast on the straights, a key feature which the Maranello team did not manage to match at most of the race tracks, especially after Ferrari was forced to reduce its engine power due to reliability issues.

After the winter pre-season testing session which took place at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir and with just a few days before the start of the new Formula 1 championship, Carlos Sainz express his confidence that the Maranello team has successfully focused its work in addressing this problem for the 2023 campaign, while at the same time pointing out that their competitiveness relative to their opponents will not be clear until the qualifying session for the Bahrain Grand Prix:

“I don’t know [if we are matching Red Bull], because I don’t know the engine mode they’re running and the exact rear wing compared to us,” Carlos Sainz explained at the end of the pre-season testing, when asked about how the test went for the Italian side in Bahrain – “But we’re confident we’ve done steps in the right direction in that sense. It’s part of the evolution of our car to also try and be less draggy and try to get close to Red Bull on the straights. So I hope that we can be closer. Are we going to be quicker or not, or the same, or able to battle them on the straights? We don’t know.” – the Spaniard added.

All in all, Carlos Sainz remains positive about what Scuderia Ferrari have achieved throughout the winter testing session in Sakhir:

Show your support for Scuderia Ferrari with official merchandise collection! Click here to enter the F1 online Store and shop securely! And also get your F1 tickets for every race with VIP hospitality and unparalleled insider access. Click here for the best offers to support Charles and Carlos from the track!

“So far, so good. I think we’ve had a good test in terms of reliability [and] managing to do all the tests that we wanted to do coming into this week here. Having a good test doesn’t mean having a good car, but the most important [thing] is that we’re having a good test, and this is giving us a good learning in all the aspects.” – Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz concluded.