Carlos Sainz has offered a damning assessment of Ferrari's performance after the Bahrain Grand Prix, after the Spaniard finished behind Fernando Alonso and 48 seconds off Max Verstappen. Ferrari appeared to suffer from more tyre degradation than their rivals, which was exacerbated by the abrasive surface at the Bahrain International Circuit. The track has not been resurfaced since its debut in 2004, which makes it one of the hardest on the calendar for tyre management. Sainz was left bemused after qualifying after struggling all weekend with car balance , and now finds it "very concerning" that Ferrari suffers from more tyre degradation than both the Red Bull and Aston Martin. "In Bahrain it's very concerning. My wish that as soon as we go to other tracks - where we cook the rear tyres less - we can hold on better," he told media, including RacingNews365.com . "It's clear that their car has something, both Red Bull and Aston Martin, where they degrade [their tyres] a lot less. "If you look at Mercedes we have very similar degradation and these other two cars for some reason, they don't degrade. So it's something that we will have to look analyse and see what we're going to do."
Ferrari still suffering from similar problems to 2022
Teammate Charles Leclerc said the team has not done enough to get on top of their tyre degradation problems, while Sainz believes its the same as last season. "It's the same, it's not as bad as it was last year," said Sainz. "It's just that the other two guys for some reason have found something that means they degrade half [the amount]." Sainz pointed towards Alonso's pace throughout the final stint on the Hard tyres, who was able to stay in the mid 1m37s while he dropped to high 1m38s. "You can see how much Fernando and Max could push on the tyres and how much we needed to save," he explained. "As soon as we push, we go backwards. So it just doesn't give you a lot of margin." Despite this, Sainz is confident it will be a different picture for Ferrari at other circuits for the team given the nature of the Bahrain track surface. He added: "We're pretty sure it's going to be a bit different in other tracks, Bahrain is the most extreme for [tyre] degradation of the year. I'm confident in at other circuits we can play a better game, but for Bahrain it's our reality."
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