From ‘very confident’ to facing a ‘real test’ – Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes assess their prospects for the Spanish Grand Prix

“We’ve been [on] the back foot, so I’m looking forward tremendously to get back to our level that we had just a few races ago, and I believe that we can get back to that level.”

However, Perez acknowledges that having a three-place grid penalty – issued following an infringement in Montreal – will alter his approach “a lot”, adding: “It’s not ideal in a place like this to have that penalty, so we will try our best to try and minimise that.”

Canada was a particularly difficult weekend for Ferrari, with both cars failing to finish the race. Carlos Sainz is confident that the squad can learn from what went wrong and perform better in Barcelona.

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“I think in a calendar of 24 races, there are always going to be races where you perform at a really high level and other races where you don’t get it right,” the Spaniard explained. “But I think we’ve learned from it.

“Now we come to a much more normal track, one of the first Europeans after Imola, and this is where we all know it very well. We know the set-up. We know how to do the out lap, how to do the push lap, and so hopefully we get it right and we are a lot more competitive.”

Charles Leclerc was blighted by an engine issue in Montreal, which ultimately forced him to retire from the running. The Monegasque says that the team found a “solution” and, like Sainz, he is expecting a much better weekend.

“The thing that we have been focusing [on] most in the last few days since we understood the engine issue was mostly the lack of performance on the Saturday, which again here I think we didn’t manage things the way we should have and there was probably more performance in the car,” Leclerc reflected on Canada.