Carlos Sainz is confident that Ferrari can deliver upgrades early in the 2023 F1 campaign which could "completely" change their season. After facing struggles at the opening race of the year in Bahrain, the Scuderia endured further challenges in Saudi Arabia, with Sainz and Charles Leclerc ending the event in P6 and P7 respectively after failing to match the Mercedes duo ahead. When asked if this had confirmed that their problems were not track-specific, Sainz admitted that this was the case but acknowleged that there are positives for the team to take from this.
Sainz: Ferrari not where they want to be
"I think this is the key, which is an unfortunate key but it's good to know that," Sainz told media, including RacingNews365.com . "Right now, we're not where we want to be in terms of race pace, in terms of [the] car in general, the balance even. We just struggled a bit and if we already overheat the tyres in clean air, [when we're] following we just eat them alive. "We need clean air to produce some kind of decent lap times. We know exactly our weaknesses. This is a positive. "Obviously we cannot do magic to bring the developments early, but I know the team is pushing flat out to bring them and this will improve our race pace for sure."
Upgrades could 'completely' change Ferrari's season, says Sainz
In terms of the difference between the SF-23 and its predecessor at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Sainz explained that the team are aware of what they need to work on. "We know where it is, we identified it already in Bahrain," Sainz commented. "The thing is that the car is doing exactly the same as in the wind tunnel, so we know where the weakness is in the wind tunnel [and] where the weakness is here. "We know where to develop the car, we just need time because from the weakness that we saw in Bahrain and we see here, obviously we cannot bring the upgrades as soon as tomorrow. "But I'm positive that this team is capable of bringing them early in the season, and this could change completely our season, so heads down and time to work hard."
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