Carlos Sainz has pinpointed closing the seismic deficit to Red Bull as the “realistic aim” for Ferrari’s 2024 Formula 1 campaign.
Sainz was the only non-Red Bull driver to claim a grand prix win in 2023 as the reigning Constructors’ champions stormed to victory on 21 of 22 occasions.
The Spaniard’s triumph in Singapore wasn’t enough to boost the Scuderia to second in the Constructors’ Championship as inconsistency and unreliability left Ferrari third in the standings after the Abu Dhabi finale. Mercedes pipped the Italian marque to the runner-up spot by just three points.
Ferrari totalled 406 points throughout the 2023 campaign, a figure that is dwarfed by the success of Red Bull and Max Verstappen’s unassailable form behind the wheel of the RB19.
Despite the 454-point void between the champions and Ferrari, Sainz believes the Maranello-based squad is “perfectly” capable of eroding the deficit in 2024.
“I think it has to be our realistic aim. Will we manage to do it? Only time will tell,” Sainz said. “But I want the team to be thinking that it’s possible because I believe it is.”
The Ferrari driver highlighted McLaren’s impressive midseason turnaround to further fuel his confidence in his team.
“McLaren has been able to do these steps during the season – I’m perfectly confident that Ferrari can do it over a winter break,” he asserted.
“I trust this team. I trust the capacity that we have back at home to turn things around. There are still circuits where we are on pole by three-tenths to a Red Bull. It’s just that is a very specific trait of the car that really is good – we just need to make it an all-rounder.
“I trust this team, I trust the capacity that we have back at home to turn things around. And as you said, there’s still circuits where we’re on pole by three-tenths to the Red Bull, it’s just that it’s a very specific trait of the car that is good; we need to make it more of an all-rounder.”
In qualifying, Ferrari was the second-best constructor in 2023 picking up seven pole positions; Charles Leclerc was fastest on five occasions while Sainz clinched back-to-back poles.
Sainz and Leclerc were both able to extract the SF-23’s raw performance over the course of one lap, but a “peaky” car the team were powerless against the Red Bull in race trim.
“I would take definitely the straight-line speed, and the braking performance, and the performance in 90-degree corners, or short duration corners. Also, the kerb riding I think is a very strong point,” Sainz said when asked which characteristics of the SF-23 he would like to see carried over into Ferrari’s 2024 challenger.
“So the car has very, very strong points, but I feel like if we want to have a car for the whole year maybe we need to give away some of these traits to make sure that we’re quick everywhere.
“Especially in the race, I think in the races we really to focus on understanding what are we doing to this car, what are we doing to these tyres that is not allowing us to compete in the races at the level of Red Bull and McLaren in Brazil, for example, in Austin, in circuits where you can clearly see we don’t have the race pace.”
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