Carlos Sainz has given a bleak summary of Ferrari's chances of beating Red Bull at any point this season, admitting that the reigning constructors' champions are superior 'everywhere'.
The Scuderia are fourth in the standings after four races, behind the dominant Red Bull, surprise package Aston Martin and the similarly disappointing Mercedes – with Sainz providing most of their points thus far.
“At the moment the Red Bull is superior everywhere," he told the media in Australia. "Superior in qualy, in race, in straight-line speed. Superior in medium and low speed corners. They’re superior with tyre management, they’re superior over the kerbs.
“It shows we clearly need to change something, we need to go onto something very different from where we are now. I think extremely good performance at the start of last season made us keep pushing with this concept.
“But I think we realise now that Red Bull have a clear advantage everywhere and that we need to start looking to our right and to our left.”
What next for Ferrari?
While Sainz is right to highlight the stark difference between Red Bull and the rest of the pack, his team still look poised to be the best of the rest and pick up any scraps Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez drop.
Their championship position is artificially deflated by Charles Leclerc's retirement in Bahrain and his grid penalty two weeks later in Jeddah. In fact, Ferrari have been the fastest non-Red Bull car in both qualifying sessions so far – with Leclerc beating 'best of the rest' Fernando Alonso by about three tenths of a second at each track.
With no grid penalties on the cards for this weekend's race in Melbourne, it could be time for the most famous team in the sport to pick up their first podium finish of 2023.
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