Formula 1
Sainz: Ferrari already identified development path amid F1 race pace weakness
Carlos Sainz says his Ferrari Formula 1 team already identified its 2023 development path in Bahrain, with its tyre management struggles confirmed in Saudi Arabia.
Filip Cleeren
Edited: Mar 26, 2023, 11:51 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Ferrari arrived at the start of the season in Bahrain having missed its mark, with Charles Leclerc retiring and Sainz struggling to keep up with Aston Martin, "cooking" his tyres in the process as he lost out on a podium.
Ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, team boss Fred Vasseur maintained that Ferrari's main issue in Bahrain was a lack of pace rather than a return of its poor tyre management.
In Jeddah, on a much smoother and less demanding circuit, Ferrari's SF-23 challenger again struggled on Pirelli's harder C2 compound.
Putting on the hard tyre for the second stint, Sainz soon fell back after an unfortunately timed safety car bunched up the field.
After a strong opening stint on the soft tyres, Leclerc also regressed on the hard compound as the pair finished a distant sixth and seventh respectively, 35 and 43 seconds behind winner Sergio Perez.
It led to Vasseur admitting afterwards that Ferrari's weakness is "clearly on the management of the different compounds."
Sainz agreed Saudi Arabia brought conclusive evidence that Ferrari's struggles cannot be considered track specific any longer.
But he revealed that the Scuderia had already identified where its deficit is coming from in Bahrain, and a good correlation in the wind tunnel has given the team a clear development focus and some optimism that it can become competitive.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23
Photo by: Erik Junius
"I think the last stint on the hard proves that we are not where we want to be, that we still deg more than the Mercedes, that we still deg more than the Astons. And we lack a bit of race pace," Sainz said.
"I'm a bit surprised because after Friday and before the weekend, I thought that we had a chance of being the second force here in Jeddah.
"But I think that last stint on the hard proves that we still have a lot of work to do. We need to wait for the developments to come to see if we can improve that weakness.
"The thing is that the car is doing exactly the same as in the wind tunnel, so we know where the weakness is. We identified it already in Bahrain.
"We know where to develop the car, we just need time because obviously, we cannot bring the upgrades as soon as tomorrow, but I'm positive that this team is capable of bringing them early in the season.
"This could change completely our season. So heads down and work hard."
Read Also:
- Ferrari must not “bullshit itself” over F1 form, says Vasseur
- Saudi F1 struggles show Ferrari not second best, says Sainz
Ferrari's relatively worse race pace was highlighted by Leclerc qualifying a strong second just 0.155s from polesitter Sergio Perez. Sainz said his tyre degradation issue on the hard tyre was even worse in traffic.
"Right now, we're not where we want to be in terms of race pace, in terms of the car balance in general and even in dirty air following," he added.
The gulf between the SF-23's peak performance and its race pace was highlighted by Leclerc qualifying a strong second just 0.155s from polesitter Perez.
Its tyre degradation issue on the hard tyre was even worse in traffic, with Sainz saying he was 'eating his tyres alive'.
"Right now, we're not where we want to be in terms of race pace, in terms of the car balance in general and even in dirty air following [another car]," Sainz added.
"If we already overheat the tyres in clean air, then imagine following, we just eat them alive. And we need clean air to produce some kind of decent lap times."
Additional reporting Matt Kew
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Hamilton being hurt by specific design element on W14 F1 car
Next article Alpine calls for rethink over F1 grid box rules
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Filip Cleeren
The impressive stats underpinning Liam Lawson's career-saving F1 season
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
18 h
The impressive stats underpinning Liam Lawson's career-saving F1 season
Liam Lawson retained by Racing Bulls for 2027 alongside Arvid Lindblad
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
19 h
Liam Lawson retained by Racing Bulls for 2027 alongside Arvid Lindblad
Latest news
IndyCar 2026 season review: ECR
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 13 h
IndyCar 2026 season review: ECR
Toto Wolff reflects on Mercedes’ non-title years: ‘We weren’t complete losers’
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
13 h
Toto Wolff reflects on Mercedes’ non-title years: ‘We weren’t complete losers’
Renger van der Zande moves to IMSA’s LMP2 class full-time with Tower Motorsports
IMSA
IMSA IMSA 14 h
Renger van der Zande moves to IMSA’s LMP2 class full-time with Tower Motorsports
Nick Sanchez will compete for 2027 NASCAR Truck title with McAnally-Hilgemann
NASCAR Truck
NSTR NASCAR Truck
Homestead
14 h
Nick Sanchez will compete for 2027 NASCAR Truck title with McAnally-Hilgemann
Feature
Discover prime content
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Formula 1
By Kevin Turner
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe