Carlos Sainz holds hopes that Barcelona will again transpire to be a “bogus track” for Ferrari this term amid a challenging weekend at Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix.
Ferrari entered the previous round striving to rebound from a disastrous outing in Canada with a seismic upgrade package intended to complement its Imola updates.
But despite showing encouraging speed in the final practice session, both Sainz and Charles Leclerc were unable to match Ferrari’s rivals and locked out the third row.
Ferrari was also unable to make inroads in the race as Sainz struggled with degradation and trailed home sixth, while Leclerc ended up five-tenths behind fourth place.
Having begun the ongoing campaign as Red Bull’s most consistent challenger, Ferrari has since slipped behind McLaren and now also Mercedes in the pecking order.
Sainz, who was involved in a mid-race squabble with his team-mate, suspects that the Italian marque’s woes will prove to be circuit characteristic in the coming races.
“Here, we were behind them,” Sainz answered when asked whether Mercedes now possessed a faster package than Ferrari. “I think it’s a fair assessment.
“Obviously tight margins in qualifying, but then in the race, I think I mirrored a bit what [George] Russell did and I was a tenth or two slower.
“Charles mirrored what [Lewis] Hamilton did and was one or two-tenths slower.
“And then obviously, Red Bull and McLaren are clear one step ahead. So, not our best weekend.
“This was the track where we struggled the most last year, too.
“So, that’s kind of our hope, that it’s just a bogus track for us and that there will be other tracks that we will be a bit more competitive.
“Competitive enough to fight for wins with Red Bull and McLaren? I don’t know. But more competitive for sure.”
Sainz revealed post-qualifying that Ferrari’s biggest time loss compared to its immediate competitors derived from recurring bouncing across the high-speed corners.
While Ferrari’s SF-24 has been a marked improvement on its predecessor’s weaknesses, the Spaniard has disclosed that winding turns remain an area it loses ground.
“For me it’s the high-speed nature of the track on the long combined corners, we seem to be always struggling when it’s long corners like China, here or Suzuka,” he said.
“You know the long combined ones, when you spend a lot of time cornering, plus the high-speed corners.
“That’s where we were weak last year, where we are still on the weak side this year, not as weak as last year, but still weaker. So, it still remains our priority on development.”
Sainz added that the deficit is accentuated when degradation comes into the mix in a race and fresher rubber can’t mitigate the SF-24’s most prevalent shortcomings.
“We have a very open balance, especially once the tyre goes away and you are away of the peak of the tyre,” he expanded.
“Then you struggle more, that’s why the race is always tricky to handle.”
Sainz denied that he was concerned the high-speed porpoising could be problematic when riding bumps is essential to the races at the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone.
“We suffered the most from it in Barcelona last year and also in 2022,” he pinpointed. “So, it’s kind of the track where we tend to suffer the most from it.
“I remember Austria not being an issue for track characteristics and asphalt maybe. And, Silverstone came a bit back to us, so we’ll see where these cars are this year.”
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