Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto believes the Scuderia should be back on track with their Australia problems “rectified”.
Having appeared well ahead in pre-season testing, the Italian squad slumped to a lowly fourth and fifth place in Melbourne, as Mercedes finished 1-2.
The line ever since, however, has been that the first race won’t be representative of the rest of 2019, and Binotto does think a repeat is unlikely this weekend.
“The Bahrain Grand Prix is the second round of what will be a very long and demanding season,” he said in his preview.
“As a team, we will have to ensure that we have understood and rectified the areas where we were weak in Australia, which therefore meant we were unable to fully exploit our car’s potential.
“In Bahrain, we expect to see the effect of the corrections we have made, although we are well aware that our competitors will once again be very strong.
“With that in mind, we are keen to get back on track and face up to them.”
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Ferrari has had strong success in the desert too, beating Mercedes the past two years thanks to Sebastian Vettel.
In fact, the German enjoys the record for most wins in Bahrain at four but explained the unique challenge that this circuit presents.
“It is hard to find the right rhythm in the desert, mainly because of the sand that the wind blows onto the track,” he said.
“Every lap is different, which can be a decisive factor, especially in qualifying. If you move just a few inches off the ideal line, you start to slide and you can throw your lap in the bin because you just can’t make up the time you lose at this point.
“Therefore, the rate of mistakes is significantly higher than at other circuits.”