The first day of practice left the Ferrari garage a little cold, given the apparent superiority of Red Bull and the ominous presence of Aston Martin. Nobody doubts that the SF-23 is a car capable of winning races this season, but it is not so clear that they will know how to extract all their benefits in the Bahrain GP and start the season on the right foot. Leclerc set the fourth time of the day, Sainz was unable to set a good lap in Free Practice 2 with traffic problems (and a scare in the morning). The apparent lack of sensations of the Spanish driver with the car seems more serious, with less pace than what he showed in the tests.
“The car doesn’t respond exactly as I expect, or as it did in tests. That’s why I suffer a little more with the balance, it’s a little more out of place. We hope to fix it by tomorrow.” Sainz explained after getting out of the Ferrari. He trusts the technicians to find the problem and reset the setup: “It didn’t go as planned, but it was a test that didn’t go well. I lost track time and probably paid the price in FP2. The car doesn’t feel the same as it did in testing so we are trying to analyze why. The track conditions have changed a bit and there seems to be a performance change as well. We will analyze it tonight.”
“If the car feels like it did in testing and I do a good lap, the grid is very tight and we’re in contention.” assures Carlos, who is not worried about the degradation of the Ferrari compared to the theoretical direct rivals: “We will all suffer from tire degradation, which was one of our weak points last year.” He doesn’t look at the Aston Martin as an unexpected party guest because in the scuderia The priority is to get the full potential out of a car that promised a little more: “We already said it on Thursday. We expected that (the Aston Martins) were in the fight I don’t know if they have enough to beat Red Bull, who knows. Although we focus on ourselves.”