Carlos Sainz wants to remain realistic as to where Ferrari is compared to Red Bull despite winning in Australia. The Spaniard still believes the Milton Keynes-outfit is more competitive than the Scuderia.
Sainz managed to win in Melbourne just two weeks after undergoing surgery. Max Verstappen indeed retired from the race, but Sainz felt that he was in a position to win, even if the Dutchman was still in the race.
Despite a great result for the Scuderia, Sainz thinks that Ferrari still needs to close the gap to Red Bull, and the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian GP demonstrate it.
“Our car worked really well this weekend,” the Spaniard said. “But it’s going to be tough to keep it up there in every track until we bring an upgrade to close that gap that we saw in Bahrain and Jeddah.
“But around Australia, from lap one, it felt like a race-winning car. And even if Red Bull were also quick and were on pole, that [1min15.915sec pole lap time] in quali wasn’t out of reach for us.
“There will be tracks where we are strong, like we saw last year. And this year it seems like our race pace is better even on those tracks that we are stronger. And together with a good development program, I hope that we can challenge Red Bull more often.”
Ferrari is planning to bring a major update for the SF24 in Imola, but encouraged by the great momentum that the first three races have given the team, the Scuderia is even trying to bring new parts already in Japan.