Carlos Sainz believes Ferrari has got no chance against the powerful and fast Red Bull in the 2023 F1 season. After they picked up back-to-back 1-2 in Bahrain and Jeddah in the first two races of the season, the Spanish driver believes the Austrian team is currently unstoppable.
As per Formel1.de, the Spaniard said that he didn’t hold back much in the first part of the race. Since he started the race from P4, he did not have to tussle with Sergio Perez.
First time we have had a 1-2, two races in a row since 2009 🤯 pic.twitter.com/wvpknfBTp5
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) March 20, 2023
However, it was Max Verstappen’s RB-19 that overtook Sainz with ease. As Verstappen zoomed past him in the race, the 28-year-old shared that the RB-19 flies on the track.
The defending champions won 20 out of 25 possible races across three seasons. With Verstappen and Perez on the wing, the Austrian team is already miles ahead of everyone else in 2023.
The Milton-Keynes-based team has 49 points advantage against Mercedes and Aston Martin. Whereas it already has a 61 points gap to the Prancing Horse after two races.
Sainz finds no positives in Saudi Arabia
For two back-to-back races, Ferrari didn’t have the race they wanted. Even though they didn’t have any DNF in Jeddah and managed double points, star driver Sainz feels the team has nothing to take from the Middle Eastern race.
The Italian team finished the race with Sainz and Leclerc in P6 and P7, respectively. Starting from P4 and P12, the team from Maranello had better expectations from the second race of the season.
Not an easy weekend for us…
We know there’s work to do. The only way we’re going to get back to where we want to be is through hard work.
This starts now 👊 pic.twitter.com/fpw30PW0c8
— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) March 20, 2023
The Spanish driver emphasized that the SF-23s lacked race pace compared to the top contenders. Leclerc, the other team driver, also felt that they were not good enough. Leaving aside Red Bull, the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were tough to catch.
The Smooth Operator feels Ferrari has lots to work
Despite sky-high expectations, the team from Maranello failed to live up to them. What is regarded as the season to dethrone Red Bull, the Italian team is struggling to keep up with Aston Martin?
As the situation of the team is not in a pleasant state, Sainz feels the team has lots of work to do. The Smooth Operator feels the Prancing Horse needs to work on their race pace to stay in contention with the top teams.
Furthermore, he also focused on the extreme tire degradation they have been facing lately. This has proven to be a big disadvantage in the race, and the 28-year-old feels the team needs to pull up their socks before it’s too late.
