“Now they’ll say Verstappen is the strongest”: Carlos Sainz looks back on Red Bull’s strong end to pre-season testing in Bahrain

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz feels that the hype surrounding strong car performance has shifted over to Red Bull and Max Verstappen. 

Taking both pre-season tests into account, most people would consider Ferrari as firm contenders going into the new season. They spent all the sessions towards the front of the grid, and completed the most number of laps and seemed reliable.

Most drivers and team principals have labeled Ferrari as the team to watch out for. After day two of testing where Carlos Sainz finished second, Mercedes’ George Russell felt that the Italian team had the strongest package.

Sainz didn’t take Russel’s words too kindly. The Spaniard responded by saying that people were unnecessarily hyping them up. He went on to say that Mercedes were using their ‘typical’ tactics and would dominate proceedings when the real action begins.

A total of 349 laps for @ScuderiaFerrari in testing this week 💪

Charles = 169 laps
Carlos = 180 laps#F1Testing pic.twitter.com/RvnmrB4NFL

— tami. (@Vetteleclerc) March 12, 2022

“Typical Mercedes, typical George. hype up the others and come to the first race and blow the competition away,” said Sainz. “If it was the first year, I might have believed them. Already on the GPS we can see what they are doing.”

However, it’s not just the Silver Arrows who have praised Ferrari’s work. Red Bull and McLaren too, feel that the Maranello based team have the best car this season.

Also read: Alpine star Oscar Piastri can race for McLaren if Daniel Ricciardo fails to appear in Bahrain GP

The fastest car hype will now shift over to Max Verstappen and Red Bull, says Carlos Sainz

Sainz was all set to finish P1 on day two of testing before a late burst of pace from Kevin Magnussen’s Haas took it away from him. However, as all teams have stressed, lap-times during testing aren’t concrete indicators as to what we can expect from them come the season.

On day three, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen finished fastest of all drivers. Red Bull came into the final session with a completely new design, as their advisor Helmut Marko previously suggested.

This led to Verstappen topping the timing charts, and Sainz feels that the entire focus will now shift over to the Milton-Keynes outfit.

That’s a wrap for #F1Testing 🏁 53 laps and a best time of 1:31.720 for @Max33Verstappen this afternoon ⏱ pic.twitter.com/l46TlvXRkg

— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) March 12, 2022

“Everyone says we are the strongest?”, he continued. “Now Verstappen has set the best time and then they’ll say that about Red Bull.”

The new campaign is just days away. The 2022 F1 season kicks off with the Bahrain GP next Sunday, and teams don’t have a lot of time between now and then to make adjustments to the car.

It’s difficult to predict if the teams are ‘bluffing’ about their car issues as of yet. The real pace and reliability of these new 2022 cars will be seen as the season progresses.

Also read: Mercedes claims they aren’t sandbagging and porpoising is affecting their development