Sainz not yet sure if Ferrari can challenge Red Bull in Jeddah

Carlos Sainz thinks it's too soon to say if Ferrari will make things difficult for Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen in Saudi Arabia. At the press conference ahead of the race weekend, the Ferrari driver addressed the current state of the team.

Ferrari faces a tough task ahead. In the opening race of the season, Charles Leclerc crashed out with an unknown engine problem. The repairs afterwards ensured that the Monegasque will start this weekend with a grid penalty of 10 spots. Nevertheless, it gives little hope for Sainz. "It's the first time we have seen this failure in a long time," said the Spaniard. "It caught us by surprise. We are putting things in place to fix it and I'm sure we are capable of fixing it in the short term. It's a bad situation, and now we can only look forward."

Leclerc's retirement and Sainz's fourth-place finish in the opening race have meant that Ferrari is not really competing at the forefront at the moment. It doesn't look like the team can make it as difficult for Red Bull this year as it did in 2022: Red Bull created a gap of a whopping 48 seconds to Ferrari in Bahrain. "The track is completely different to Bahrain," Sainz said when asked about his preview. "The tarmac, the high speed nature. The wing level. Everything is a bit compared to Bahrain, I think we will be a bit more competitive. Enough to beat Red Bulls? Given how competitive they were in Bahrain, it's going to be extremely difficult."