Zandvoort, Netherlands - Ferrari are confident they will be a lot closer to Red Bull in this weekend's Dutch Grand Prix than they were in Belgium last Sunday.
The race is a home one for Red Bull's runaway Formula One leader Max Verstappen, who was in a league of his own at Spa-Francorchamps and won in front of his Orange Army of fans in the Netherlands last year.
"I don't think we are as bad as it seems," said Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, who was third in Belgium behind a Red Bull one-two after starting on pole position.
"And I'm pretty sure that we can be back on from this weekend and be fighting again for pole and win," added the Spaniard, who turned 28 on Thursday.
"They've been raising the bar a bit, race by race, but it doesn't seem too far away ago when in Austria we outraced them by quite a big margin and in France it was me passing the Red Bull of Perez coming from 20th (place).
"And that was only three races ago. So I don't believe they've improved so much as they did in Spa."
Verstappen, winner of nine of the 14 races so far and now 93 points clear at the top, has also said he expects Ferrari to be strong.
Sainz said Red Bull simply had a better aerodynamic package for Spa, the championship's longest track and also one of the fastest whereas Zandvoort is a comparatively short layout with plenty of turns.
"Maybe I'm just being too optimistic or too hopeful that we will not see that happening again, but it's my feeling," added the Spaniard.
Team mate Charles Leclerc agreed that Ferrari should be much more competitive.
"We are super-motivated and after Spa there has been so much work to try and understand from where the lack of pace was coming from," he said.
"I think we've got some directions to push in. Whether we have the final answers we don't know yet but we know where to push.
"I am confident the gap will be closer."
Reuters