Ferrari challenges Red Bull again: 'Gaps to competition are small'

Ferrari looks competitive again. After a weekend in which Red Bull Racing's hegemony had already been broken, the Italians were the only ones to make things difficult for Max Verstappen at Suzuka on the opening day of the Grand Prix weekend. The team finished both free practice sessions in second and fourth place. That gives Ferrari confidence for the remainder of the race weekend.

Afterwards, the team revealed that it had concluded two things: firstly, that tyre wear is so high that two pit stops during the Grand Prix is the most obvious strategy choice. Moreover, the Italians note that over a fast lap, the Ferrari's speed is fine. In any case, whether Red Bull Racing can be beaten in this race too is extremely uncertain, according to Carlos Sainz.

Sainz and Leclerc seek compromises

The Spaniard says: "This weekend the gaps to our closest rivals seem very close, therefore back to where we were in previous races, with Red Bull very strong again. On my side, we’re still fine tuning the car a lot and today we tested many different set-ups to try to find the best compromise for this track.We have a lot of data to look into and tonight we'll need to decide what settings to run tomorrow, trying to put the car in the right performance window. We have a couple of interesting days ahead of us."

Teammate Charles Leclerc - following Sainz - was satisfied with Day 1: "We seem to be slightly closer to our competitors than expected, so it was quite a positive day overall. On my side, we tried out a few different things on the car to make me a bit more comfortable, which was good. I’m looking forward to confirming that feeling tomorrow," said the Monegasque.