Ferrari drivers on tracking: 'It feels like the old cars'

The Saudi Arabia Grand Prix last Sunday saw less action on the track than expected. The number of overtakes compared to last year dropped by five. While Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc started fairly far back, which could have actually benefited the statistics.

The Bahrain Grand Prix also saw a significant drop in overtaking from 2022 to 2023. Last year, 67 overtakes were made by drivers in Bahrain. This year there were only 30, so this trend continued in Saudi Arabia. The Ferrari drivers both revealed that they found following other cars on track difficult this season.

Leclerc started the race 12th and quickly worked his way to the front on the soft tyres. But once the Monegasque got behind his teammate Carlos Sainz, he was unable to make any further progress despite feeling he could go faster. "I could have gone slightly faster, but when I was closer than a second to Carlos, you felt the turbulence of the car in front of you," Leclerc told Auto, Motor und Sport.

Sainz was also unhappy about tracking with the 2023 cars and even made a comparison with the previous generation cars. "I felt there was more turbulent air on the road. It felt almost like in the old cars." It is not a problem exclusive to Ferrari; Max Verstappen also complained earlier that it was difficult for him to follow through the twisty first sector.