Carlos Sainz “The Aston Martin F1 threat is very worrying”[F1-Gate.com]

Ferrari went into the 2023 season confident that they would lead the way without being dominated by Red Bull. After one race, however, Carlos Sainz admitted that confidence had shrunk. Aston Martin has been touting its strong form in pre-season testing, but many wondered if it would translate into practice, qualifying and the race. But the Bahrain Grand Prix gave a clear answer to that question.

Fernando Alonso qualified fifth, losing out to Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, and recovered to finish on the podium after being hit by his teammate on the opening lap. One of the highlights of the race was Alonso’s attempt to catch Sainz who forcefully overtook Ferrari. However, despite his best efforts, Sainz said that Aston Martin’s pace on Sunday night was completely unsatisfactory and that the situation was “very worrying”. He said he was worried about what the team would look like in 2023. “It’s time to keep our heads down, work hard and think how we can close the gap to the top. It’s only the first race , so we will continue to push no matter what. “Behind, and clearly behind the Red Bull,” said Sainz, who told the media in the paddock that the SF-23 appeared to have a lot of tire degradation. “Red Bull and Aston have cars that are obviously less degraded,” Sainz said. If you look at Mercedes and us, we have very similar degradation. The other two have no degradation at all reason.” “It is something that we will have to investigate, analyze and see what we can do, Sainz acknowledged, and this imbalance could be track-specific. “If we go to other circuits that. don’t burn the rear tire so much, I think we can hold up better,” said Sainz. “We already knew from testing that it would be difficult here in Bahrain, so we need to focus on improve for the upcoming races,” said Sainz, who described the duel with Alonso as “a good battle”, which allowed Lewis Hamilton to catch up and in the closing stages Mercedes almost passed him. “I was felt it from behind,” said Sainz when asked about the small contact he had during the fight with Alonso. “But to be honest, I think it was a clean fight. I touched it. “In this fight, I almost lost the place to Lewis. As soon as our car pushed a little to protect Fernando. I burned the tires. “The problem is that the degradation is too strong and it’ the tires get too hot when you start pushing. We don’t have much of an edge in the race.” Sainz’s teammate, Charles Leclerc, was unable to finish the race after his car stopped on the track on lap 40. “Leclerc couldn’t finish the race when his car stopped on lap 40. It’s a shame, but we will investigate the case to understand what happened,” added Sainz. The battle between Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso