Has Ferrari reduced the gap to midfield leaders McLaren? Who better to ask than Carlos Sainz, who swapped the British team for Scuderia in winter and scored points on his Ferrari debut at the Bahrain season opener.
Last season Ferrari fell back to sixth overall thanks to low power and a high drag car, but this year they seemed to have made up some of that deficit. New signing Sainz explained how the difference between Ferrari and his ex-employer McLaren – who finished third in the constructors’ championship last season – has shrunk.
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He said, “It’s encouraging because last year I remember it with this car [the McLaren] I passed Charles [Leclerc] pretty easy so I remember how big the difference was between the McLaren and Ferrari and how close I was to overtaking [Daniel] Ricciardo in the end.
“I think I had a lot better pace there than Daniel towards the end of the race. We were catching up more than half a second per lap and there are positive signs, ”he added.
Ferrari is fourth overall at this early stage after a good performance in Bahrain
At the checkered flag, Sainz finished just 0.096 seconds behind McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo (P7) – although the Australian suffered a floor damage after a collision with Pierre Gasly on lap 4 – and the Spaniard said he was “happy” with the performance of his SF21.
“There’s encouragement, it’s a big step compared to last year and now it’s time to fine-tune the details, work hard in Maranello and keep improving,” he said.
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“We have certainly taken a very good step and now want to take the next steps, but as Mattia [Binotto, Team Principal] said this year will focus more on next year. But I am encouraged. To be honest, I am satisfied with what I saw today, I am satisfied with my feeling of being a first race with the car and I can see a positive start. “
Teammate Leclerc, who finished 6th ahead of Ricciardo, also compared this year’s performance to last year’s performance, adding that the team did a “great job” as he was looking forward to the team’s home race in Imola in April.
Charles Leclerc qualified with a brilliant P4, but fell to P6 behind Red Bull’s Sergio Perez
“Yes, when I look at where we were in exactly the same place last year, there is good progress,” said Leclerc.
“We certainly want to fight for victory very, very soon, but realistically and honestly we’ve done a great job catching this and at least getting closer to McLaren and fighting with them in the race,” he concluded.
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