Carlos Sainz has insisted Ferrari's latest upgrade package is aimed at opening up future opportunities rather than providing an instant performance improvement. The Scuderia introduced a radical upgrade at the Spanish Grand Prix that saw its aggressively scalloped sidepods replaced with a more conventional design, though the cut-outs remained on a reduced basis. Sainz confirmed the SF-23's pace by qualifying second on the grid for his home race, only to slump backwards with tyre degradation remaining a thorn in Ferrari's side. Praising the impact of the updates, Sainz told media, including RacingNews365.com : "The new package was meant to improve mainly the medium-to-low-speed and, in that area, we have definitely felt a step in the right direction. "A step into a different direction is not so much a big upgrade or a big change in our performance but opening a bit of a different window of working range for the car - that was the main target of this upgrade, not to suddenly go half a second quicker. "I think that is doing the job and it's working well."
High-speed issues
"We also want to make the car more predictable, more drivable, easier to put together a lap and, hopefully, it will go in this direction," added Sainz. "Our high-speed performance really hasn't been good since the beginning of the season. "Since Australia, we've been struggling with the balance and with the bouncing and still many things are happening to us at high speed. "We just want to focus on that and see if we can improve that because actually, low speed is not bad at all for us."
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