BAHRAIN -- Carlos Sainz put Ferrari on top of the second day of Formula One testing but there is still a consensus in the paddock that world champions Red Bull are a step ahead of everyone else.
The key question is by how much and Thursday did not provide a clear answer, with one more day of testing remaining before the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 2.
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The way Max Verstappen and his team started testing on Wednesday created an ominous feeling on the opening day, but Sainz ensured Ferrari took the second day's lead time.
Sainz's best effort, a 1:29.921, was set with the sun still blazing in early afternoon and was comfortably faster than Verstappen's leading effort on Wednesday.
But, as is always the case, preseason is more than just about times on a screen.
Verstappen's teammate Perez failed to set a similar headline lap on Thursday but the team's car's overall pace in all conditions continued to impress rival engineers across the paddock.
McLaren boss Andrea Stella put it simply.
"There's one car that seems to have found a big step," Stella said on Thursday evening.
"Unfortunately [it's] the car that was already the quickest last year."
Red Bull won 21 of 22 races last year and there is a growing feeling they could be just as dominant in 2024.
Stella predicted the chasing pack, which includes his McLaren team, Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin, might be much tighter than in 2023.
Comparisons between different lap times and different times of day make the competitive order a complicated puzzle to decipher but one thing is clear -- Ferrari's drivers feel their car is better to drive than last year.
In 2023 they had a car fast enough over one lap to claim pole position on seven occasions, but earned just one grand prix victory.
Sainz's teammate Charles Leclerc, who drove in the morning, suggested the team's new car may be less erratic than its predecessor.
"In terms of drivability, the car is a lot better compared to last year," Leclerc said.
"But last year after the test, it was very, very difficult to push into a direction, because we just didn't know what the car was doing.
"We would get into a corner and we didn't know whether we will have extreme oversteer or extreme understeer. Which was a big problem.
"This year, the car is not like that, which is a better starting point. However, my initial feeling is that Red Bull unfortunately remains quite a bit ahead. They have done very impressive lap times."
Leclerc's session ended prematurely after driving over a loose drain cover, which caused a red flag and a lengthy stoppage before the lunch break while that part of the circuit was fixed.
That incident prompted Ferrari to change the floor of its car but fortunately did not have a major impact on the rest of the team's day.
The feeling about Red Bull's advantage is echoed by number of people.
Friday is likely to properly shape a lot of understanding of the true competitive order ahead of the first race of the year.
Final classification from Day 2 of preseason testing:
Carlos Sainz (Ferrari): 1:29.921
Sergio Perez (Red Bull): 1:30.679
Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1:31.006
Lando Norris (McLaren): 1:31.256
Daniel Ricciardo (RB): 1:31.361
Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 1:31.750
Lance Stroll (Aston Martin): 1:32.029
Esteban Ocon (Alpine): 1:32.061
Valtteri Bottas (Sauber): 1:32.227
Oscar Piastri (Mercedes): 1:32.328
Logan Sargeant (Williams): 1:32.578
Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin): 1:33.053
Zhou Guanyu (Sauber): 1:33.715
Pierre Gasly (Alpine): 1:33.804
Kevin Magnussen (Haas): 1:36.611
Nico Hulkenberg (Haas): 1:37.508
Yuki Tsunoda (RB): 1:38.074