Carlos Sainz reveals 2024 F1 challenger 'behaving differently' to 2023 car

Ferrari car launch 2023 — Photo: © LAT Images

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Ferrari star reveals 2024 challenger 'behaving differently' to 2023 car

He has given some updates on the team's progress

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Monday 29 January 2024 14:57 Updated: 16:59

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz has said that the team will have to wait until pre-season testing in Bahrain before they really know the capabilities of their 2024 car.

Sainz was the only non-Red Bull driver to claim a race victory in 2023, when he was able to brilliantly hold off a late charge from the Mercedes pair to take the win at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Despite this, it was a fairly disappointing year for the team as a whole, as they regressed in their 2022 performance and fell down to third in the constructors' championship.

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While the season was so largely dominated by Red Bull and Max Verstappen, Sainz and team-mate Charles Leclerc's positions of fifth and seventh respectively in the drivers' championship did little to inspire their passionate fans.

Ferrari head into the upcoming season with the assuredness that at least Leclerc will be with the team long into the future, as they attempt to get closer to Red Bull.

Carlos Sainz was the only non-Red Bull driver to win a main race in 2023

Charles Leclerc has recently signed a new contract with Ferrari

Pre-season testing will once again take place in Bahrain in February

Bahrain test crucial for Ferrari

Sainz has been speaking about the Maranello-based outfit's potential heading into 2024, with team principal Fred Vasseur already admitting that the car will feature some dramatic changes.

“I think we are going to have to wait until testing. It’s incredibly difficult to know," Sainz said in quotes reported by MotorsportWeek.

“The car in the simulator is behaving differently for sure, but I think until we don’t put the car in 100 kilos and used tyres, it’s going to be impossible to see how the car is actually treating that tyre, treating the pace and how our race pace is going to be affected.

“That we will only know in Bahrain when we put it on track and in the meantime we can focus on adding performance in the wind tunnel and trying to make it better and better.”

Ferrari Mercedes Carlos Sainz Singapore Grand Prix pre-season testing