Carlos Sainz put on a feisty display to claim a podium position in the 2024 Formula 1 season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix and said chasing the tail of Sergio Perez’s Red Bull was “a pleasant surprise.”
After a handful of intra-team battles with the brake-issue suffering Charles Leclerc and exchanges with George Russell’s Mercedes, Sainz made sure fans had a gladiator to cheer for amid Max Verstappen’s race-winning domination.
Still, despite the Dutchman’s plus 20-second advantage by the time the chequered flag fell, Sainz was able to keep Perez’s Red Bull in his sights, finishing just a few seconds shy of the second-place driver.
“I felt really good out there today,” Sainz told David Coulthard after jumping out of the car post-race.
“The start wasn’t ideal, but from then on, I just managed my tyres well, and then from there, I could do my pace.
“Overtook two or three cars on the way to the podium, and then keeping up with the Red Bull there at the end, which was a pleasant surprise.
“Still not enough, not where we wanna be, but good steps forward compared to last year and a solid start to the season.”
Starting on the soft tyre and then transitioning to two hard compound tyres in the race aided Sainz in his mission to tag onto the back of Perez’s Red Bull, who opted for a soft-hard-soft strategy.
The Spaniard said the team executed a “clear run plan” and felt comfortable on the hard Pirelli rubber.
“With the hard in our car, we feel a bit more comfortable because it overheats less, it degrades less.
“It is a bit of a tricky tyre with warmup and with front locking, but then once we get it working in our car, you can push.”
Looking ahead to next weekend in Saudi Arabia, Sainz hopes after a strong start that Ferrari can challenge the high-speed corner proficient Red Bulls and McLarens in Jeddah.
“It’s the first different circuit that we go with this new 2024 car so it will be a bit of a surprise for everyone to see where we are,” said Sainz.
I expect the cars like the McLaren and the Red Bull that last year they were very good in high-speed circuits to be competitive there, but you know our car has also improved in the high speed so hopefully we can be also strong there.”
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