F1 News
Sainz worried about Red Bull: 'they will suddenly level it up'
Ferrari will not be dissatisfied with the start of the season. At first glance, the Scuderia has taken a good step in the right direction. Charles Leclerc will start from P2 on Saturday afternoon, while his teammate Carlos Sainz will start from P4. The latter tells GPblog and others how they rate their chances in the race.
"I think we are more or less there, within reach of the podium if we do a perfect race. At the same time, we're starting on the dirty side. Checo will be starting on new softs tomorrow, which is two or three seconds of race time. So he will be very, very tough to beat. While I think the Mercedees, us, the McLarens, the Aston Martins, we have the same pace more or less. So it's going to be an interesting one," the Spanish driver said.
Sainz worries about Red Bull Racing
After the winter test, it looked like Red Bull would have a huge lead again in 2024. Fernando Alonso even said 19 drivers already knew they would not be champions this year. After the first free practice sessions and the first qualifying session of the season, it still seems that the Austrian team's lead is not as big as many people expected, despite Max Verstappen being in pole position.
However, Sainz does not want to cheer too soon about Red Bull's minimal lead just yet: "Let's wait until the race. I think that's where they suddenly level it up and that's where they manage to have a degradation that no one can have, and a race space that no one can have. I think last year, if you look at the last eight races in qualifying, we're always there or within reach of them. And this year, we failed again within reach in qualifying. In the race, we'll see tomorrow."