Ferrari currently sits fourth in the constructors championship with just five points less than direct competitor McLaren. 

The Maranello outfit suffered in 2020, in what has been one of the worst season for the Prancing Horse, while the Woking team secured third in the standings after a close fight with Racing Point. 

The 2021 season sees Ferrari being more competitive than last year: the SF21 is performing better than its predecessor, despite the SF1000, despite the lacking of horsepower in comparison to the current top teams. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have dove a good job so far, with the Spaniard still adapting to his new challenger. 

Leclerc managed to qualify fourth in three of the four race weekends so far, while Sainz secured a fifth place in quali in Portimao. Unfortunately, things get worse during the race, where Ferrari can't seem to make the tyres last over longer stints. 

In Bahrain and Portimao Leclerc failed to mantain his position, finishing sixth in both races, while in Imola and Barcelona the Monegasque finished the race in fourth. The Italian race was more of a lonely run, while in Spain he managed to race against Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas and keep up the top team speed.

On the other side, Sainz is still struggling in some areas like start procedures - a workhorse for the Spaniard in the past - but after the start, Carlos pace has been very good in Barcelona, where he managed to cross the line in seventh.

Team principal Mattia Binotto admitted, after the last race weekend, that the SF21 had a "pace drop-off between qualifying and race", with issues over the tyre management. Uncertain if the issues had been fixed before, Binotto said the team resolved it after the race at Montmelò. 

"I think as Scuderia Ferrari we are pretty happy with the weekend - said the team principal - we are seeing what was our objective, which was gaining points for the constructors, to finish as high as possible, and I think fourth and seventh has been a good result.

2021 Charles turned into 2013 Fernando on Sunday as he powered his @ScuderiaFerrari past a Mercedes on Lap 1 👀 🚀 #SpanishGP 🇪🇸 #F1 @Charles_Leclerc pic.twitter.com/oKGLqdQrvg

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 10, 2021

"But as well we know, Barcelona is difficult circuit and normally if you're doing well there, you may do well at many circuits and I think overall the car has performed as expected, not only in qualy.

The qualifying session in Barcelona saw only five teams in Q3, exposing every teams potential, but the race saw Ferrari slightly ahead of McLaren; the qualifying advantage, though, might help Ferrari in Monaco. 

"I think we had good pace relative to the qualy, and I think as well that both drivers did a good weekend [with] tyre management, which would have been critical.

"That was lacking in the first race in Bahrain, so overall [it has been a] positive weekend for us. And I think that was our sole purpose of the overall weekend".

While Sainz is still adapting to his new car, Leclerc's good results has brought him to within one point of Lando Norris in the drivers standings.  

"Definitely in Imola we were very strong too - Leclerc said, who is currently fifth - in Bahrain for me I didn't do a good job personally to keep the tyres as well as I could have done, and in Portimao on my side, it was quite good too.

"So I don't think there's a big weakness like there was maybe a bit more last year on the race pace. I feel like this year it's a lot more balanced, and we are actually stronger in qualifying and in the race, so it's good".