Carlos Sainz says he has "no clue" where Ferrari stands relative to its rivals in F1's pecking order despite the Italian outfit's positive start to pre-season testing last week in Barcelona.
Sainz and Ferrari topped the lap count of the three-day test at the Circuit de Catalunya, with the Spaniard logging 236 laps and concluding the week with the tenth fastest lap overall.
Teammate Charles Leclerc was eight quickest overall and set the fastest lap on the second day of the test.
Although pundits singled out Ferrari's strong display, Sainz cited fuel loads and engine modes as hidden variables among the teams that likely skewed overall results.
©Ferrari
"I can imagine why you guys are starting to take conclusions and maybe try to put a bit of a pecking order,” Sainz said.
"But for us, really we have no clue, and I think no-one has no clue of which fuel loads [and] which engines modes is everyone running.
"So we cannot confirm or deny that we are happy or sad, because we really don’t know where we are at all.
"I think [in] Bahrain, maybe it will start to get a bit easier to start to guess where everyone is."
Ferrari has gone all in following the introduction of Formula 1's new regulations, starting work early last year in Maranello on its F1-75 and sparing no effort to innovate and push the boundaries of development to design and field a car that will hopefully return the Scuderi to the top.
A "happy and proud" Sainz noted that the team's reliability in Spain bodes well for the future, although improvements are still necessary, in particular to lessen the porpoising effect suffered by Ferrari's F1-75, although Scuderia boss Mattia Binotto has claimed that significant progress has been achieved on that front.
"Now it’s time to work a bit more on not only the mileage, but it’s also trying to improve the porpoising, and if the car is reliable with it, which if course is tricky to do," Sainz added.
"We’ll keep working on it, and we’ll see if we can keep getting better."
Binotto echoed his driver's comments on predicting the true running order, believing that a faire amount of "sandbagging" was going on in Barcelona.
"For judging the performance, it's too early, I think," he said. "Some teams are sandbagging more than others. We will see that with the tests in Bahrain and with the first races.
"At the beginning of the season, we will try to exploit all the potential of the car, that’s the first upgrade. We will do some small changes, but nothing drastic.
"So we will focus, at the beginning of the season, mostly on drawing out all the potential from the current car."
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