Sainz tempers expectations: 'The Red Bulls are just faster'

Looking at the long runs in free practice, the Ferrari seems faster than the Red Bull. Appearances are deceptive according to Sainz: "They are better. It's just I think probably we're a bit lighter. They always run really, really slow on Fridays. It always looks like we're going to beat them on Sunday and then they put 20 seconds on us," said the three-time race winner.

So, according to Sainz, at Red Bull they pull a well-known trick: "So they are always super quick on Sundays and I think they sandbagging a bit in the long runs because they know it's their strength. So yeah, maybe we're a bit closer, but it's still not like we're going to find half a second tomorrow in terms of pace.."

High expectations after Melbourne victory

After Sainz's handsome victory in Melbourne, just under two weeks after a violent operation, expectations at Ferrari are high. Something Sainz is trying to limit: "Yesterday I was trying to bring everyone down a bit because I knew that being one second away, I know that we didn't improve one second the car from last year to this year in a place like Suzuka," said the so-called Smooth Operator.

He continued: "So it was going to be always tricky. But I'm very happy with how the car feels this year. It's a step better. We just need to do another step in this sort of tracks. Anyway, I did some very clean, good laps today that put me before, which is a good position to fight tomorrow."