Carlos Sainz was the best non-Red Bull driver at the opening of the 2024 season in Bahrain. He finished third for Ferrari, unable to challenge the dominant Red Bull team that secured first and second place. Sainz revealed after the race the significant advantage Red Bull had in terms of tire degradation compared to their competitors. Despite this, Sainz managed to secure a spot on the podium.
During the race, Red Bull chose to give their drivers soft compound tires for the final lap, while most other teams opted to use a different set of hard tires. As the race progressed, tire degradation became a significant factor. Sainz received information from his team that the hard compound tires would soon be faster than the soft ones. Sainz acknowledged that it would be unlikely for them to finish ahead of at least one Red Bull car due to their ability to maintain pace on the tires. Red Bull stated that the performance drop on the soft tires was similar to that of the rest of the pack on the hard tires.
Sainz mentioned that during the three free practice sessions, he noticed that Red Bull had less tire degradation. He also compared the tire degradation of Red Bull’s soft tires to Ferrari’s hard tires. However, Sainz, being one of the top drivers, remains eager to challenge and improve Ferrari’s pace.
Although it may have appeared on television that Carlos Sainz was alone, in fact there were many Ferrari staff present to celebrate his podium finish in Bahrain. Sainz secured Ferrari’s first podium of the 2024 season, finishing third behind his Red Bull teammates.
Sainz started in fourth position, but managed to finish in second place. He does not believe that Ferrari intentionally tried to put him behind his teammate by pitting Leclerc first. Sainz was able to overtake Leclerc twice and eventually passed him on lap 17. He then passed George Russell on lap 18, securing third place for the remainder of the race.
Despite some claims on social media that Ferrari did not acknowledge Sainz’s podium celebration, it was later revealed that the live camera did not capture the presence of Ferrari team members. They were indeed present during the photo session and other camera recordings to celebrate the achievement.
