Could Red Bull face a challenging competition in the season’s opening race?
Ferrari‘s handling of tyre wear during race conditions is exceptional, according to a positive statement from Frederic Vasseur.
A significant shortcoming for Ferrari in 2023 was the rapid degradation of its tyres, allowing the team to be competitive in qualifying sessions with fast single laps but falling short in race performance.
Carlos Sainz led the pack on Thursday with his performance on Soft tyres. Additionally, both he and his teammate Charles Leclerc have expressed positive feedback about the performance of the SF-24 car.
During a test session, Sainz maintained impressive times in the 1:38 range over a 17-lap run, which was divided into two segments on the last day of testing.
Despite believing they are still trailing behind Red Bull, Ferrari is poised to enter the Bahrain Grand Prix as the team with the second-strongest performance indicators from testing, indicating progress in addressing their notable issue from 2023.
Vasseur stated; “With the consistency and the race pace, the degradation that we had yesterday for the longest stint was on another planet compared to last year.”
“At least on this we’ve made a step, but now it is not just a matter of being consistent, but fast.
“We know that we always have to pay attention to the conclusions after the test.
“If you take the classifications from last year, Day 2 or Day 3, I think it has nothing to do with the classification of the Saturday of the race [weekend].
“The most important thing is to trust the guys because their feedback was positive and we have seen a lot of development for sure.
“I think Red Bull is still ahead, but let’s continue to push and see where we will be next week.”
