Ferrari has seemed to display a bullish sense of optimism heading into the upcoming season with regards to catching up with Red Bull, but driver Carlos Sainz has pointed to some ‘misleading information’ that is cause for concern.
The Prancing Horse came in third behind Mercedes as Red Bull established a new level of superiority over the course of last season. While Ferrari showed glimpses of potential when it came to matching the enviable speed of Red Bull, Sainz believes the backroom staff was reading the data all wrong.
Speaking with F1 Maximaal, Sainz was quick to point out that his team was miscalculating qualifying data which was leading them to believe that one-lap pace was their strength. It made Ferrari head down the wrong direction with respect to catching up with the table-toppers.
“You see that we can beat them or match them on Saturday, you see that you are not far away, but in the race, it is half a second per lap, half a minute in the race, it is all misleading,” Sainz said.
It appears like Sainz is alluding to the fact that his team needs to just pause for a bit and look at the bigger picture before making hasty decisions, which has almost become second nature to them in the recent past. He also wants Ferrari to take note of the versatility displayed by Red Bull on Sundays with respect to their setup.
While many believed that Ferrari was closing the gap on Red Bull at the end of the 2022 season, their lack of identifying the critical problem areas meant they slipped further off the pace last year.
Sainz believes Ferrari needs to strike perfect balance
For Sainz, it is imperative that Ferrari finds the right balance between improving its race pace and single lap pace.
Last season, Ferrari managed a paltry 406 points compared to Red Bull’s tally of 860 and it goes without saying that the team has a big job on its hands heading into the upcoming season.
While Charles Leclerc was able to mount a challenge for a while in the 2022 season, Sainz believes that it only happened as a result of Red Bull’s reliability issues. The moment they sorted this out, they were simply too good for Ferrari to compete.
Although Ferrari didn’t have the same number of reliability issues the following year, their tyres were wearing out faster than their rivals, which was leading to a reduced race speed.
Regardless of how last season panned out, Ferrari remains hopeful that it can mount a more considerable challenge this year. It remains to be seen whether the engineers and team management will pay heed to Sainz’s advice. For their sake, you hope they do.