Carlos Sainz says his Ferrari team are in a “bad situation” at the start of the Formula 1 season.
He said the start to the season had been “tough”, the team were “relatively concerned” and their difficulties had “caught us by surprise”.
Ferrari lagged behind Red Bull at the season-opening race in Bahrain.
Sainz’s team-mate Charles Leclerc starts this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix with a 10-place grid penalty because of reliability problems.
“We have faced an issue with race pace and reliability that we did not expect,” Sainz said. “It caught us a bit off guard.
“But we are putting in place things to stop it happening, The right exam has to be later in the year – we have a good plan on development, and we know where the car is weak and what we want to do.”
Sainz and Leclerc believe Ferrari will be more competitive in Jeddah than they were in Bahrain but Sainz added: “Enough to beat the Red Bulls given how competitive and strong they were in Bahrain? it is going to be extremely difficult. But I think we have a good chance to get back on the podium.”
Leclerc’s penalty is for using more than the permitted number of engine parts for a season, in only the second race.
Two electronics control units broke on Leclerc’s car on race day in Bahrain, one when the car was fired up in the morning and one to cause his retirement from the race.
That meant the team needed to fit a third for this weekend’s event on Jeddah, taking Leclerc over his allocation for the year.
Leclerc said: “It’s kind of a challenge but we like the challenge like this where you start a little bit on the back foot and we will give everything to have a special weekend.
“Of course this is not ideal, but we all know that. We need to be fully motivated and push in the same direction and this is the case.”
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton said he believed Ferrari were the only team who could prevent Red Bull’s Max Verstappen from dominating the season.
Hamilton said: “They will run away with it most likely this year unless Ferrari can stop them. We will wait and see but at some point this year we are hopeful we can close the gap.”
The seven-time champion said after the Bahrain race that Mercedes “didn’t listen” to him when it came to choosing their design route for this year’s car.
He said on Thursday: “In hindsight, it was not the best choice of words. There are times where you’re not in agreement with certain team members but what’s important is we continue to communicate.”
Hamilton is out of contract at the end of this season but he said Mercedes’ problems had not made him rethink his desire to sign a new deal.
“I still have 100% belief in this team,” he said. “Also, I don’t plan on going anywhere else, but we all need a kick. We have seen where the performance is and we need to start making some bold decisions and close the gap to these guys.”
Hamilton has said that he knew as soon as he drove the 2023 car that it was not going to make Mercedes competitive.
“The comments I would hear [from the team] are we would not hit the ground straight away at the front but we should be there or thereabouts,” he said.
“So it was a bit of shock when it wasn’t the case. I knew we weren’t in the right place – when you saw the car for the first time it looked so much different to the competitors.”
He added: “I will win again but it is just going to take some time. Of course in 2021 we were hoping to be fighting for a WC. But it is how you deal with it and tackle the issues you are faced with and that’s what my energy is going into.
“We are in a similar mentality to last year, working as hard as we can. Staying positive. But we are working on a solution. You don’t lose the ability to build great cars. We just need to keep working on it.”