A Week After First Win of 2024, Carlos Sainz Admits Ferrari Won’t be a Match to Red Bull Until The Planned Upgrade

A Week After First Win of 2024, Carlos Sainz Admits Ferrari Won’t be a Match to Red Bull Until The Planned Upgrade

During the Australian GP, Ferrari put an end to Red Bull’s dominant streak as Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc completed a sensational 1-2 for the team at the Albert Park street circuit. However, despite his heroics, Carlos Sainz believes that Ferrari will not be able to match up to Red Bull in the upcoming races, unless a planned upgrade package is introduced for the SF-24.

Autosport quoted Sainz, 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.” 

Even though Sainz won in Australia, Red Bull are still by far the strongest team on the grid. The Milton-Keynes-based team scored a possible 87 out of 88 points in the two races leading up to Melbourne.

That being said, Ferrari has plenty of positives to take back from their trip to Australia. While Red Bull struggled with understeer and excessive front graining, the SF-24 looked pretty good on its tires. Tire degradation was a big problem for Ferrari last year and this was one of the major reasons why Leclerc couldn’t match Verstappen in the races despite finishing on the pole position a handful of times.

Team principal, Fred Vasseur also commended the work done on the 2024 car. According to Sky Sports, the Frenchman dubbed the SF-24 a well-balanced car that is “By the way, much easier to develop.”

Ferrari ready to mount pressure on Red Bull as 2024 battle intensifies

Vasseur is keen to make the most of the momentum the team has gathered after their epic result in Australia. In 2022 and 2023, Red Bull did not have any real competition to bother them. However, Vasseur believes that 2024 won’t be so easy for the Austrian stable.

According to him, Ferrari is the perfect candidate to end Max Verstappen’s run of dominance in the sport. While the team has done a good job of developing the SF-24, the upcoming upgrades will only make them better, adding more pressure on Red Bull.

With a real challenge now in front of them, Vasseur feels that Red Bull will be boxed into a corner. As quoted by RacingNews365 the Frenchman said, “When they [Red Bull] are under pressure that they will make mistakes. That means that we have to continue in this direction.”

Ferrari’s first upgrade package of the year is scheduled to come at the 2024 Emilia Romagna GP held at the iconic Imola circuit.

Post Edited By: Somin Bhattacharjee
carlos sainz ferrari Red Bull

About the author

Anirban Aly Mandal

Anirban Aly Mandal is an F1 writer at The SportsRush, with over 1000 articles under his belt, Anirban's love for F1 started when he discovered a copy of F1 2014 on his computer. With over half a decade's worth of time spent religiously following the sport, he’s dived deep into the world of motorsports. However, Anirban's expertise goes beyond just writing - he has also written several academic papers focused on the domain of motorsports and the law. His passion for the sport is so immense that he aspires to work as a legal advisor in the most prestigious racing series in the world someday. When it comes to Formula 1, Anirban finds great pleasure in re-watching classic races and idolizes the likes of Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, and Sebastian Vettel. His top picks include Brazil '91, Silverstone '92, and Germany '19. Outside of the sport, Anirban is an avid sim racer, often found racing on titles like Assetto Corsa, F1 22, and Automobilista. Apart from his interests in gaming, Anirban has a keen interest in philosophy, literature and music.

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