F1, Carlos Sainz is surprised by Red Bull

Carlos Sainz’s words.

Carlos Sainz made an initial assessment of the season to the microphones of The Race: “It doesn’t hurt me so much to be fourth in the constructors’ standings or fifth or sixth in the drivers’ standings. It hurts me more the gap to Red Bull. If now we were fourth among the constructors but knew that we had in every race a chance to make a pole and win, it would be easier to accept. Red Bull’s speed this 2023 took us by surprise, but I think Mercedes also never expected to have this gap.”

“It’s realistic to say that Red Bull has reached a level of performance that is very difficult to achieve just with a development of our car. It has something deeper conceptually than all of us. But after the first few races, we also identified very clear weaknesses in our package, even compared to last year. And it is this combination of two elements that we are focusing on very hard. That’s why I’m quite calm, because I think we have identified weaknesses compared to last year, but we also have an idea of what direction we need to go in development.”