Sainz: 'Hopefully closer or faster than Red Bull on Saturday'

Carlos Sainz had a good feeling about his morning session in Bahrain. Ferrari's 2023 car is doing what it needs to do, although the driver who finished fourth in the world championship last year is cautious about exactly where the formation from Maranello stands. In any case, there are still steps to be made in terms of speed.

"Trouble-free, very satisfied with how we have been able to drive and the amount of testing we have done so far," Sainz told Sky Sports. The Spaniard drove with different set-ups on Friday morning. "We learned a lot from it. It feels like an evolution from last year [the car], it feels very similar to drive."

The 28-year-old driver goes on to say, "We are trying to improve on the good pace from last year and are now focusing on our weaknesses from last year." At Viaplay, however, Sainz adds that the SF23 has not yet been pushed to the limit, nor is it really known how much faster they can be.

Ferrari hopes to get closer to Red Bull, although there is still a relatively large gap during the test days for now. "It feels good, but that doesn't say much else. We don't know yet how we compare to the other teams. Hopefully we can go a bit faster on Saturday (tomorrow, ed.) and be closer to or faster than Red Bull. We will see."