Carlos Sainz hopes Ferrari 'can be closer' to Red Bull by the 2023 F1 Bahrain GP

Carlos Sainz is hopeful that Ferrari can catch up to Red Bull in the 2023 F1 season.

The Spaniard was able to drive the new SF-23 during the F1 pre-season testing in Bahrain and collect plenty of data for the Italian team. Ferrari will be looking to analyze the data and make marginal gains in several departments to close the gap to Red Bull before the inaugural race in Bahrain on March 5. Red Bull had the fastest car on the grid last season and have had an impressive showing during pre-season testing this year as well.

Speaking to the media, Carlos Sainz explained how Ferrari is trying to reduce drag on their cars to catch the Red Bull cars on the straights. He also mentioned how his team does not know the specifics on which setup Red Bull is running their cars on; hence, the actual gap between the top two teams will only be revealed in the first race at Bahrain. The Spanish driver said:

"I don’t know because I don’t know the exact engine mode they’re running. It’s part of the evolution of our cars, trying to make it less draggy and try to get close to Red Bull on the straights. I hope that we can be closer. Are we going to be quicker or the same as them on the straights? We don’t know."

He also went into detail on how he was able to test a lot of setups in the Ferrari car, something he was unable to do in 2022. Sainz said:

"I’m managing to test a lot more things, understand the car better and the direction I want it to go in the future. [I was able to] come back and try different things which is something that I was not able to do last year very well and it compromised a bit my first half of the season. This time I think I have a much clearer understanding."

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Ferrari team boss does not want to change his plans acording to Red Bull

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur recently spoke about how he does not want his team to compare their pre-season testing runs to Red Bull's and keep changing their course of action accordingly.

Speaking to The Athletic, Vasseur said:

"We are comparing runs with runs, and if you start to change because Red Bull is faster or slower, and say, "OK, I need to change my program,’ you lose the path of the three days. This would be a mistake."

He further explained how Ferrari are taking a more straightforward approach and tackling their own problems in a particular manner, saying:

"We did something a bit more straightforward, and I hope this will work in a good way. The most important thing when something is not working is to understand why it didn’t work, if it was a choice, or the flow of information that the guy (making the choice) received. Very often, it’s the flow of information."

Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc will be trying everything in the 2023 F1 season to get back at Red Bull and steal both the world titles from them. Catch them in action at the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 3-5, 2023.