Carlos Sainz says there is no "crisis" at Ferrari and insists he is surprised by attempts in Italy to destabilize the Scuderia after the disappointing start to its 2023 campaign.
Ferrari's SF-23 package was singled out last month as a pre-season favourite, with the team rumored to have made a step forward on both the chassis and engine front, not to mention its operational changes following the arrival of new team boss Frédéric Vasseur.
However, the first race of the season positioned Red Bull as the class of the field once again, with the Scuderia suffering a significant deficit to its arch-rival.
On race day, adding insult to injury, Charles Leclerc suffered a reliability issue while Sainz finished fourth, a country mile behind Red Bull's drivers and ten second adrift from Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso.
It was hoped that Jeddah - a layout perhaps more suited to Ferrari's SF-23 - would deliver a more favourable verdict, but Sainz and Leclerc were comprehensively outpaced on Sunday, but only by Red Bull, but also by Aston Martin and Mercedes.
However, Sainz claims that Ferrari's plight is no where near as bad as the media has suggested.
"It is a lot better than what the news make it sound like," he said.
"When you look back at [the week between Bahrain and Saudi], and how many rumours have been around, it seems like the place is not in a great moment.
"But I can tell you, it is so clear to us what we need to improve, how we need to do it, and what the short, medium and long-term targets are.
"I am actually very surprised how some people back home have been trying to destabilise the team, because some call it a crisis.
©Ferrari
Sainz made clear that Ferrari is not settling for less and won't take its recent underperformance sitting down.
"We are the first ones that are not happy with how the first races went, and we are the most bothered about it," he said.
"We are the most affected by it, and we are going to try as much as possible to try and improve it.
"I'm pretty calm about it and I see people at home committed, focused and with a very clear target in mind, and I include myself in it."
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