Carlos Sainz shares a surprising revelation about Red Bull's pace at the F1 Japanese GP

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz has claimed that the Italian team is closer to Red Bull than they had initially expected heading into the Japanese GP this weekend.

The Spanish driver remains the only driver to break two race-winning streaks by Max Verstappen as he achieved the feat in Singapore 2023 and Melbourne a couple of weeks ago.

He and the rest of the grid anticipated the Austrian team and Verstappen to dominate at the Suzuka International Circuit as they had done last year. The three-time world champion was in the pole position and won the race by a margin of close to 20 seconds the last time F1 came to Japan.

However, in his interview with F1.com after FP2, Carlos Sainz expressed surprise at the gap between Ferrari and Red Bull. He said:

“Honestly a bit closer to the Red Bulls than I anticipated or expected so positive signs in terms of progress made from five months ago [when Formula 1 last raced in Suzuka] to now.

"Still obviously FP1, you don’t know what fuel loads and engine modes are running, but it feels like we – obviously last year, we were eight-tenths off in quali, and here to be two-tenths off in FP1 was a good feeling, or a good starting base. But [Red Bull] are going to be difficult to beat this weekend.

Carlos Sainz analyzes a tight fight from McLaren and Mercedes

Carlos Sainz has stated that he expects a tight fight from McLaren and Mercedes this weekend despite limited running in the Friday practice session, with FP2 getting affected by damp conditions.

As quoted by the aforementioned source, the Ferrari driver said:

“I think it looks again tight with the McLarens, the Mercs [Mercedes]. Red Bull are a step ahead but a smaller step ahead than maybe I thought, so it should be an interesting fight out there.”

While his teammate Charles Leclerc expressed that 'there's still plenty to learn and we've still got quite a lot of things to try”. The Monegasque also hoped for no rain in the FP3 as believed that there were 'still a lot of questions to answer and things to fix before qualifying”.

It will be interesting to see if for the second weekend in a row the Prancing Horses can challenge the mighty Red Bull and claim another win or if Max Verstappen and co. can bounce back just as they did in Suzuka last year.