The Red Bull F1 team’s historic winning streak finally came to an end at the Singapore Grand Prix last month when Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz produced a masterclass to win his first race this season. After finally registering a victory this campaign, the Spaniard has issued a challenge to Max Verstappen and Red Bull, as per Soymotor.
Even though the Milton Keynes outfit have undoubtedly been in a world of domination of their own this season, the 29-year-old believes that he and his side will not let their rivals continue their stunning run for much longer. After a difficult 2022 season, Sainz has indeed rediscovered his form and is the leading Ferrari driver this year.
🇮🇹 Italian GP just couldn’t be missing in the 4th season of DONTBLINK!
Relive from the inside the pole and podium moments at Monza , no doubt this GP stands as one of the most exciting of the season for me!
🎥Check the new episode on my Youtube channel:… pic.twitter.com/ecXO4GAYRF
— Carlos Sainz (@Carlossainz55) October 2, 2023
Sainz has scored 150 points in the championship till now and is 15 points ahead of Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc. After finally winning a race this season, the former McLaren driver is confident that his side is now the only team that are capable of fighting Red Bull for the wins.
Optimistic Carlos Sainz looking to step up to Red Bull
While speaking in a recent press conference, Carlos Sainz made his aims clear moving forward. The Spaniard explained how he is always “optimistic” and is now keen to step up to Red Bull after his first win this season.
As quoted by soymotor.com, he said, “In the last two years the only ones capable of standing up have been Ferrari. In the first half of last year and now Singapore. With the new rules, Red Bull is almost unbeatable, but if anyone can beat them, it is us“.
The 29-year-old then added that he feels that he is in the best place to “stand up in 2024“. After stating the same, Sainz added how Ferrari now very well understand where they need to improve to close the gap to Red Bull.
However, he did admit that Red Bull are definitely in the best position to improve even further, and hence, he believes that only time will tell if Ferrari can edger closer to their rivals or not. While the Milton Keynes outfit do not seem to have many “weaknesses,” they are keen to address the one area of concern this season.
Christian Horner keen to fix Red Bull’s issues before 2024
Following the conclusion of the Singapore Grand Prix last month, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner explained how they are keen to fix some of their weaknesses that were exposed during the race. Even though the Milton Keynes outfit failed to win that race, the 49-year-old believes they benefitted by realizing where their car lacks ahead of the 2024 season.
While speaking to Sky Sports, Horner said, “We just ended up in the wrong window and it exposed some of our weaknesses that the car has. It has actually been a very useful lesson for next year because it gives us a very useful insight on certain things that hopefully we can address in RB20“.
If Red Bull are indeed able to tackle their one weakness so far, they will be in a much stronger position next season. This is because, barring that one race weekend in Singapore, no team has been able to beat Red Bull, who have won 15 of the 16 races so far this season.
