Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz pointed out that a negative result for the Maranello team in the first round of the 2023 Formula 1 championship, the Bahrain Grand Prix, which takes place this weekend in Sakhir does not necessarily mean that Ferrari’s chances of fighting for the titles this year are over.
We remember very well how his Maranello team-mate Charles Leclerc started the previous F1 campaign by winning two of the first three events, in Bahrain and Australia, gaining what seemed a solid lead in the drivers’ championship. Unfortunately, a mix of power unit technical failures and poor strategy calls from the Maranello pit wall, in addition to Red Bull’s impressing in-season Red Bull of the RB18, gave Max Verstappen the easy task of comfortably winning the his second F1 title.
If we look back at how strongly the Austrian side performed in the winter pre-season test in Sakhir a few days ago, the Milton Keynes side can be considered the favourite also for the upcoming F1 season. However, Carlos Sainz wanted to point out that the title duel will not be over even if the SF-23 car will not be able to challenge Red Bull for the race win in this first round of the season in Bahrain.
Looking back at th two fuel system issues which led to Max Verstappen having to retire from the Bahrain Grand Prix and the Australian Grand Prix in the start of the previous championship, the Ferrari driver explained: “What we learned last year very clearly is that whoever wins the first race, it doesn’t mean you’re going to win the championship. If you DNF with two cars on the first race, you’re not going to lose the championship, because it’s exactly what happened last year between us and Red Bull. We also know how it finished. Whatever happens in this first race, stay humble, stick to your plan of development of the things that you want to improve, because the championship is not won or lost in this first race and there’s still 22 left.” – the Spaniard added.
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Carlos Sainz confirmed that this early stage of the 2023 season it is not easy to determine Ferrari’s position in the pecking order against Red Bull, Mercedes and Aston Martin just by looking at the data from winter testing, as the “last two or three tenths” of a second compared to opponents are not known.
“What we don’t know is the last two or three tenths. But in the end in Formula 1, the last two or three tenths are the most important because two or three tenths is a big number in this world. I have no idea where we will fall in those last two or three tenths with the Red Bull, with the Aston Martin, with the Mercedes. It’s impossible to know. It’s no secret that they look like the strongest ones with Red Bull probably leading the way. Now we want to see where we fit into that matrix.” – the Spaniard continued.
Charles Leclerc, who finished runner-up to Max Verstappen last season, shared a similarly coy view of the Italian side’s prospects for the new season, but admitted that the new Ferrari car is in fact better than the F1-75 after addressing several issues:
“Straight-line speed was probably a weakness last year. We focused on that a bit more and we gained some of it, losing a bit of speed in the corners. But overall, I feel like we’ve done a good job and all the weaknesses that we had last year are improved. I’m confident that it’s a better car.” – Charles Leclerc added.
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