Sainz sees daunting gap to Red Bull: 'Superior in all areas'

For Carlos Sainz, the Australian Grand Prix was one to quickly forget. Before the race, his expectations were not too high and he expressed his dissatisfaction with the big gap to Red Bull Racing.

Sainz called Ferrari's difficult season start in the 2023 one of the most difficult moments he has experienced in the sport. For now, the Italian racing stable remains stuck on 26 points in the constructors' standings. With that, Sainz and Charles Leclerc have scored a whopping 97 points less than Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez in the first three races.

Given Ferrari's big jump after the major regulations changes in 2022, Sainz had hoped his team would have started the new season stronger. "This year, we expected at least to find ourselves in a similar position," the 28-year-old Spaniard is quoted by ESPN.com.

Sainz sees discouraging lead Red Bull

"But unfortunately there is a team named Red Bull that have killed the opposition coming up with a car that is clearly superior to everyone else," he adds. "If you look at Ferrari, we are there with Mercedes, we are not too far from Aston Martin in race pace, but there's one team that have nailed it and this puts us a bit on the backfoot again."

Red Bull's current lead is anything but encouraging for Ferrari. "At the moment the Red Bull is superior everywhere - in quali, in race, straight line speed, superior in medium, low speed corners, they are superior with tyre management over the kerbs and bumps," Sainz observed. "It just shows that we clearly need to change something, go and change something very different from where we are now."

Yet Sainz also manages to take positives from the first F1 races of the season. "At least we know, I think we know, where we got it wrong. It's very clear to us where the weaknesses of our car lie, where the strengths of the Red Bull are," he continued. "And now the whole team is pushing in the same direction, trying to cut that deficit."

The Ferrari driver had an unexpectedly good starting position on the final standing restart in Melbourne, but saw his fourth place go up in smoke after he was penalised for tapping Fernando Alonso. With the race then ending behind the safety car, Sainz saw himself drop back to outside the points. Ferrari has announced it will appeal the penalty.