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carlos sainz makes call as verstappen: ferrari must improve

Ferrari in trouble: Sainz makes the same call as Verstappen

22 July at 13:10
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  • Ludo van Denderen

It seems like an eternity ago, but in reality, it was less than four months ago. It was the period when Red Bull Racing seemed to be on the same dominant path as 2023 and Ferrari emerged as the Austrian team's main challenger. Meanwhile, Red Bull has been outpaced in terms of performance, while Ferrari even seems to have to pass three faster opponents. A new reality for Carlos Sainz, who therefore uses similar words about Ferrari as Verstappen did about Red Bull: It really has to improve now.

Obviously, McLaren could not have wished for a better result. A tight one-two with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, allowed the British team to pass Ferrari in the constructors' championship standings. "It was a matter of time that McLaren would overtake us given their performance and our performance," was Carlos Sainz's realism, after the Hungarian Grand Prix.

"It happened in a day where they were pretty much an easy 1-2 for them, and we were before P4/P6, which is more or less where we've been playing the last three or four races. Now's time to get our heads down. It's going to take a bit of time to bring a package that is able to fight the McLaren. I don't think we can bring it for Spa or the first race after the summer break, but hopefully, soon after that, we will come up with something that will close the gap, and we can get back in the fight."

Sainz sees Mercedes getting stronger

Not just McLaren and still Red Bull, Mercedes also seems faster than Ferrari at the moment. In Hungary, for example, Lewis Hamilton drove to the podium, where the German team had won the previous two races. "Mercedes has been a couple of races on cold tracks or tracks that suit them," said Sainz when asked by GPblog about having a fear of Mercedes.

"They can win the race, like we saw. Other tracks, like here, we seem to be very on par with them. At the same time when you look at where they were eight races ago and where they are now, clearly they've outdeveloped us and now it's time for us to clearly try and hit our development targets."