Sainz Indicates Mistake Both Ferrari And Mercedes Made Ahead Of 2023

Monday, 25 December 2023 at 11:22

Updated at Monday, 25 December 2023 at 11:42

Carlos Sainz believes his team, Scuderia Ferrari, made the same mistake as Mercedes going into the 2023 season.

Ferrari's team principal stated his team thought they would be doing a lot better compared to Red Bull in 2023, but the reality hit them pretty hard at the beginning of the season.

Ferrari was the third or fourth-fastest team at the start of the season but managed to make a great step forward to become the second-fastest during the second half of the season.

On the other hand, even the big improvement in performance wasn't enough for Ferrari to match Red Bull's race pace despite the fact the team from Milton Keynes stopped introducing upgrades after the summer break.

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As a consequence, Ferrari went into the winter break a few tenths down on Red Bull, which the team needs to make up for if they want to compete for the title in 2024. Sainz said during an event on behalf of Estrella Galicia in Madrid:

“"I tell Ferrari that we do not need to improve four [tenths], but six. We have to see why in the race, we are missing that little step."”

The positive thing for Ferrari was that the team was able to match Red Bull's qualifying pace at the end of the season. On the other hand, they haven't been able to solve the tire degradation problem for two seasons.

“"On Saturday we see that we are not that far away, but later in the race they have three tenths or half a second per lap that becomes 30 seconds at the finish line."”

The Spanish F1 driver believes mid-2022 data pointed the team in the wrong direction in terms of car development for the 2023 season, and Mercedes made the same mistake as they found themselves in a similar situation during this season.

“"I think we made the mistake of going in the wrong direction that the mid-2022 car showed us. We thought we were not that far away. It also happened to Mercedes."”