Sainz believes Bahrain showed hints Ferrari can challenge Red Bull

Carlos Sainz says the signs from the Bahrain Grand Prix suggest Ferrari could have a chance of seriously challenging Red Bull at some circuits this season.

Max Verstappen cruised to victory in the season-opening race, leading home teammate Sergio Perez by over 22 seconds as Red Bull started with a one-two for the second consecutive year. However, Sainz says Bahrain is likely to be one of Red Bull’s strongest tracks and the fact he could put pressure on Perez despite some issues with his own car hints at a much closer performance gap at other venues.

“When I saw the long runs of Max and Checo in FP2 and then the long runs of testing, there’s no secrets,” Sainz said. “We’ve been here three days. I knew they had a three-, four-tenth advantage — maybe not half a second like George [Russell] was saying, depending on track conditions. But I knew it was going to be very difficult to beat the Red Bulls.

“They also kept a new soft, which shows a bit what the intentions and their plans were. So I knew the Red Bulls today were going to be very, very difficult to beat. So to keep up with one of them and have the possibility to fight is already a good surprise.