“I don’t think they’ll dominate” : Carlos Sainz claims Red Bull starting to feel pressure
Red Bull have not been able to maintain their dominance on the grid this season so far. The reigning Constructors champions completely decimated the rest of the field last season, however, things have started to become a lot more competitive this season. Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz remains optimistic, and believes that the Red Bull will not be able to dominate this season.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc managed to claim his first win of the season in Monaco. After years of bad luck in his home race, the Monaco based driver finally managed to turn things around this time around. Carlos Sainz also secured a P3 finish, as Max Verstappen could only finish P6. Meanwhile, Sergio Perez’s race ended on the first lap itself after a heavy collision.
This meant that Ferrari are now 24 points behind Red Bull in the Constructors Championship. Even McLaren have been quite consistent this season, as Lando Norris claimed the first win of his career in Miami last month.
“I think my common sense tells me that on normal tracks Red Bull should still be favorites. Domination, like we were seeing, hopefully not. But favorites, yes. And then it will be a very tight fight with both McLaren and us. I think we are all three at a very similar level,” Sainz said.
“Our last reference of a normal track is Imola and Miami. And those two tracks, we seem to be half a tenth behind McLaren and maybe a tenth or two behind Red Bull. It still means that that any small progress, any small upgrade, any small thing that we bring to the car might switch it to a potential race victory or a winning car,” he added.
Carlos Sainz believes the rise of Ferrari and McLaren is good for the championship
Carlos Sainz believes that Red Bull have already started to feel the pressure this season. He pointed out to a rare error from Max Verstappen at the Monaco GP, which he believes could be due to the rise of Ferrari and McLaren.
The Spaniard also stated that the upcoming European leg of races could be very different from the start of the season. He expects Ferrari to be competitive with Red Bull, and hopes that they can win a couple of races.
Carlos Sainz believes that the current scenario is good for the championship fight in general. For the last two seasons, we have witnessed Red Bull and Max Verstappen running away with both the championships.
“I think as Ferrari we will have our opportunities in these sort of tracks. McLaren will have their opportunities, but when I talk about a normal track we can talk about maybe a Barcelona. Canada, I think is quite specific but a Barcelona or any European track, where I consider it to be a normal track, I still think Red Bull will be favorites, but I don’t think they’ll dominate like they used to do,” said Sainz.
“I think that’s good news for the championship. It’s just worth being within a tenth or two in qualifying, that even if they’re favorites, they cannot afford to do any mistakes. That’s where both Ferrari and McLaren, we can capitalize, which is a position that in Bahrain — race one — no one was,” he added.
