Red Bull and Mercedes note problem at Ferrari: 'That stood out'

At Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, they have seen an unstable car at Ferrari. Still, both teams think Ferrari will be very fast, but the first day of testing was not entirely flawless.

Red Bull Racing drove the most laps of anyone (157) on Thursday with only Max Verstappen at the wheel. The Dutchman drove a lot of laps, but was also quite fast. Thus, he topped the timesheet at the end of the day, with Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz behind him.

Yet Ferrari's red car also stood out. The Italian team drove a total of 21 fewer laps than Red Bull, but still a big number of 136 laps in total. In the morning, Sainz and Verstappen kept swapping the lead position. The SF-23 also proved to be quite fast again. Yet the competition also saw a pain point.

When Auto, Motor und Sport went asking around, Red Bull indicated that the Ferrari car was suffering remarkably from tyre wear in the longer runs. Mercedes too noted this. Yet they also see that Ferrari are very fast. The engine has a lot of power and the base of the 2022 car was very competitive. So one day with more wear is not immediately a disaster.