Carlos Sainz: “Red Bull-Ford’s new power unit is clearly a step ahead”
Sainz points to the power unit of the energy drink team and RB: "It's impressive if they've made a new engine and on top of that it's the most reliable."
After the first impressions from preseason testing in Bahrain, Carlos Sainz isn’t hiding his admiration: for him, Red Bull‑Ford has set the benchmark with its new power units, which now rely on roughly half the electrical output compared to previous years.
Energy management and battery efficiency are more crucial than ever, and the regeneration capability of both Red Bull and RB has caught the entire paddock off guard.
“It’s still very early, but if you look at the GPS data, it’s obvious that the Red Bull‑Ford engines are a step ahead of everyone else. A clear step, not a small one. It’s impressive,” Sainz said. “If they’ve managed to build an entirely new engine and it turns out to be the fastest and most reliable, you have to tip your hat. What they showed on track Wednesday was remarkable.”
Still, he warns that customer teams should temper expectations around the Mercedes power unit—especially now that the FIA is taking a closer look at it.
Sainz on Williams’ delayed start
Sainz spoke with reporters Thursday morning in Sakhir before getting back in the car. He’s not convinced Williams has fully recovered from missing the Barcelona test days, telling AS: “I’ll be able to say for sure after the full six days in Bahrain, but losing three days of testing like we did in Barcelona is something you can’t get back. All you can do is make the most of the six days in Bahrain, and so far we’ve done that.”
He added: “It was frustrating—I won’t deny that I would’ve loved to be in Barcelona. That was the plan. But over the winter we ran into several issues, several bumps in the road we didn’t expect. We had to readjust. But coming to Bahrain and having a strong start to testing at least shows we made those decisions for a reason, and now we’re trying to catch up.”
On the new cars and the shifting F1 landscape
As for the characteristics of the new‑generation cars, the complaints from some drivers, and the broader shift happening in Formula 1, Sainz remains optimistic:
“The driver matters just as much as before. Back in 2014, when the hybrid engines arrived, I remember seeing Red Bull‑Renault completely lost. But a few years later everything was perfect, and you didn’t even have to think while driving. I trust the people in F1. Today everything feels complicated, but a year from now it’ll all be much simpler.”
He concludes: “What matters is who gets there first—who manages to integrate the system and the engine, who makes it intuitive, automatic, driver‑friendly, as the English say. But right now, it’s still very early.”
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