Sainz saved Ferrari´s day somewhat with a fourth place finish behind Fernando Alonso and ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
Photo: Scuderia Ferrari
Carlos Sainz Jr was the main man of the day for Ferrari in the end, after teammate Charles Leclerc lost power while he was running third behind the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Perez.
Sainz who was behind almost 10s adrify of Leclerc when the Monegasque dropped out, could not hold P3 against a clearly stronger Fernando Alonso and his Aston Martin. Nonetheless, he managed to keep ahead of Lewis Hamilton and secured fourth place for the Maranello-based team.
Ferrari proved to be far from Red Bull at the opening stage of the championship and will have to fight for being the best of the rest with Mercedes and a surprising Aston Martin. It will require a lot of work from the Italian outfit to put up a strong fight for the championship under the new leadership of Fred Vasseur.
Sainz admitted post-race that tyre degradation was key and that the difficulties were no surprise for the Scuderia since they knew from the testing it was going to be a challenge and vows they will focus on what´s ahead.
“It was a challenging Sunday. We knew already from testing that it was going to be tough here in Bahrain and now we need to focus on improving for the upcoming races.”
The championship has just begun and Sainz assures that the team will keep pushing hard to make up for lost ground with the Red Bulls who dominated in Bahrain without getting anywhere near the full potential of their package.
“Time to put our heads down, work hard and see how we can close the gap to the top. It’s only race one, so we’ll keep pushing no matter what.”
Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur praised Carlos Sainz’s efforts and consistent pace to finish fourth and scoring the first points for the Scuderia.
“Carlos drove a solid race, running at a consistent pace and he gave it his all to finish fourth.”
