Carlos Sainz argues that although Red Bull are still the favourites in F1, they are within Ferrari and McLaren’s striking range. The Spaniard believes only a few-tenths separate the top three teams. This status quo is expected to be retained for the foreseeable future.
The Monaco GP represents a crucial turning point in the 2024 season. Ferrari secured their second victory of the season, with Leclerc leading a 1-3 finish. McLaren, meanwhile, demonstrated that the MCL38 is a front-running machine even at its weakest circuits.
After the Miami GP, Max Verstappen’s narrow victory in Imola dissipated some of the optimism about a potential three-way battle at the front. However, this pessimism was soon combated by the hard evidence presented in Monte Carlo.
Over a reasonable sample size of three rounds, where the front-runners have all brought upgrades, three different teams have taken victory.
Speaking after his podium finish in Monaco, Sainz gave his analysis on the pecking order:
“I think my common sense tells me that on normal tracks, Red Bull should still be favourites. Domination, like we were seeing, hopefully not. But favourites, yes. And then it will be a very tight fight with both McLaren and us. I think we are all three at a very similar level.
“Our last reference of a normal track is Imola and Miami. And if I see those two tracks, we seem to be half a tenth behind McLaren and maybe a tenth or two behind Red Bull.
“And yeah, it still means that that any small progress, any small upgrade, any small thing that we bring to the car might switch it to a potential race victory or a winning car.”
CARLOS SAINZ CONFIDENT FERRARI CAN PRESSURE RED BULL
Sainz makes an important point regarding upgrades, which have already been transformative in 2024. Red Bull has lost ground, whilst McLaren and Ferrari have progressed quickly with relatively basic iterations of their new concepts.
The reigning Champions also face a significant crash bill post-Monaco, which will further hamper their development.
For Sainz, perhaps the most important thing is to be consistently challenging. Being in a position to put rivals under pressure and capitalise on any mistakes will be essential:
“And at the same time, being within 24 points of the Red Bull in the Constructors, you see that when you put them under pressure yesterday, Max did a mistake in Q3 run two, Checo was out in Q1. We all just need to be there, you know, to show that these things can happen to Red Bull, too.”
Fred Vasseur mentioned on numerous occasions in the early rounds that putting Red Bull under “pressure” was a key target. In this sense, the Maranello-based outfit has surpassed expectations. Not only is the SF-24 capable of being faster than the RB20 in absolute terms, but has the consistency to put the reigning Champions under constant pressure.
Like McLaren, Ferrari’s evenly matched driver line-up is also playing its part in spicing things up at the front.
