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Carlos Sainz is taking solace from Red Bull's 2022 F1 season fightback as Ferrari's rocky start to the 2023 season continues.
After a car launch amidst a lot of fanfare, Ferrari have not had as impressive a start to the season as was expected. Red Bull dominated the first race of the season, with Max Verstappen appearing to hold close to a 7-tenths of a second advantage on the long runs.
What exacerbated things was Charles Leclerc first getting effortlessly overtaken by Sergio Perez in his Red Bull and then suffering a DNF late in the race. The issue has carried forward into Jeddah as Leclerc will have to serve a ten-place grid penalty for using a third ECU component.
Talking about his race in Bahrain and the situation Ferrari find themsevels in at the moment, Sainz cited the example of last season when Ferrari had a strong start to the season before things went south.
Red Bull had a horrendous start to the 2022 season, as Verstappen suffered twi DNFs in the first three races but turned around his season to win both championships. Sainz told the media including Sportskeeda:
"It was a tough first weekend for the team, but in general, I think we got out of it with a maximum that we could have done. Obviously the penalty of Charles coming into here is not ideal, but it's only the first race."
He added,
"If something told us 2022 that it's not how you start it's how you finish so we're going to try and build up from there on, especially now keep the developments in and try and improve the car as much as possible and try and improve from where we started."
Red Bull prepared for lead to melt away as season progresses
Red Bull chief advisor Helmut Marko admits that the team is trying to maximise every point early in the season.
Marko emphasised that the lack of development time is something that has left the team prepare optimally as their lead melts away. He said:
"We prepared ourselves optimally for the season. Once we knew that this penalty would be imposed, it was clear that, when we went into the wind tunnel, it had to be done in an efficient manner, and each run with a clear plan."
He added:
"At the moment, we've managed to do all that. But, of course, as the season progresses and we run out of wind tunnel time, the others will still have that available, and our lead will then melt away. That's why it's extremely important that we take the points with us now."
Red Bull's reduced development time due to their cost cap breach in 2021 is something their rivals will look to bank on as they try to close the gap on the early leaders.
