Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz has dismissed suggestions from Mercedes driver George Russell and the team boss Toto Wolff that Ferrari are the strongest team based on the data from the first 2022 Formula 1 pre-season testing session at the Circuit de Catalunya.
The Italian side’s drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz enjoyed a productive three-day testing session in Spain last week, with a lot of laps completed and some promising lap times throughout the test. Mercedes were full of praise for the iconic Maranello team and pointed them out as having the best car at this stage of the season.
Silver arrows team principal Toto Wolff told Auto, Motor und Sport: “We have the feeling that Ferrari has the strongest engine at the moment.”
In reference to McLaren as well as Scuderia Ferrari, George Russell added: “Some teams are looking pretty fast – a red team and an orange team, in particular, look very competitive. They seem to have things well under control and are on top of everything. They look very strong on low fuel and high fuel and with the tyre management. Who knows? We all know we’re on different programmes but we definitely know from the average of all the different runs that we are behind them at the moment. A world championship is not won in two days in Barcelona winter testing but it’s certainly been an intriguing two days.” – he continued at the end of the testing session in Spain.
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Carlos Sainz however, remained tight-lipped regarding the Maranello team’s prospects for the 2022 Formula 1 season and explained Ferrari do not have a complete understanding of the F1-75 car’s performance.
“I can imagine why you guys are starting to take conclusions and maybe try to put a bit of a pecking order,” Carlos Sainz said – “But for us, really we have no clue, and I think no-one has no clue of which fuel loads [and] which engines modes is everyone running. So we cannot confirm or deny that we are happy or sad, because we really don’t know where we are at all. I think [in] Bahrain, maybe it will start to get a bit easier to start to guess where everyone is.” – he added.
The Spaniard confirmed that Ferrari will continue the development work to improve ahead of the second pre-season testing session, which takes place next week at the Bahrain Internationat Circuit: “Now it’s time to work a bit more on not only the mileage, but it’s also trying to improve the porpoising, and if the car is reliable with it, which if course is tricky to do,” Carlos Sainz added – “We’ll keep working on it, and we’ll see if we can keep getting better.” – the Ferrari driver concluded.
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