Carlos Sainz claims Ferrari will match McLaren’s pace from Qatar GP and onwards

Ferrari and McLaren are the most inform team behind Red Bull at the moment.

Carlos Sainz claims Ferrari will match McLaren’s pace from Qatar GP and onwards

Carlos Sainz at Monza (Via IMAGO)

Ferrari and McLaren played the ultimate tactical game against Red Bull in Singapore. Carlos Sainz broke Red Bull’s dominant streak and ended Max Verstappen’s ten consecutive wins, taking first place in Singapore, while Lando Norris secured P2. McLaren continued their strong performance, narrowing the gap with Red Bull, resulting in McLaren finishing P2 and P3 in Suzuka. Ferrari faced challenges but managed to secure P4 and P6. Sainz believes they can now match McLaren’s pace in the upcoming races.

McLaren and Ferrari have a rich history in Formula 1, with their last world championship titles coming in 2008 for McLaren and 2007 for Ferrari. Ferrari came close to winning the championship last year but faced setbacks due to poor strategic decisions. McLaren is currently in fifth place in the constructors’ championship. Ferrari, on the other hand, managed to get to third place in the standings, surpassing the Aston Martin Challenge.

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Acknowledging McLaren’s resurgence, Carlos Sainz anticipated a fierce battle between McLaren and Ferrari on high-speed circuits. He conceded that McLaren is targeting podium finishes with their latest upgrades. “When we go to places like Mexico, even Austin, with more low-speed content, we will be very equal to them – we will have a race with McLaren. I think Piastri, whenever I had clean air. Actually I had some very strong laps comparable to him. It’s just that I never had clean air,” said Carlos Sainz, as reported by racefans.net

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Discover: Carlos Sainz ‘started laughing’ when Lewis Hamilton and George Russell recreated his Singapore DRS maneuver at Suzuka

Fred Vasseur questioned McLaren over their reduced Lap time

McLaren introduced significant upgrades in Australia and has consistently secured podium finishes since then. Team boss Andrea Stella attributed their two podium finishes in Suzuka to a one-second deficit in lap times compared to their performance in Bahrain.

Fred Vasseur (Via IMAGO)
Fred Vasseur (Via IMAGO)

“I think realistically, to be the second-best team [at Suzuka] you needed to be one second quicker than when we were in Bahrain, so pretty much I think the maths is correct. The performance is a consequence of having been able to develop the car,” said Andrea Stella.

Fred Vasseur expressed skepticism about Stella’s explanation, suggesting that they have a different perspective on the season. He pointed out that McLaren effectively maximized their performance by implementing two upgrades, which helped them address their issues.

“I’m not sure if we have exactly the same reading of the season,….I think that they had a big issue at the beginning, and then they recovered pretty quickly. Each time you will do a step forward you will also help the driver to do a step forward, and this can be a kind of snowball effect. Still, a small step compared to Red Bull!” said Fred Vasseur, as reported by Autosports.com

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