Carlos Sainz believes Ferrari will need a miracle to beat McLaren to this year’s Constructors’ Championship title.

“It would need to be a very, very big change of pace,” he said, speaking ahead of today’s race in Qatar.

“Going from a couple of tenths off to being a couple of tenths in front and being able to overtake them needs a big swing in performance.

“We should at least stay with them in the race, play with them with the strategy, the pit-stops and see what will happen.

“It is not about third and fourth, it is about recovering points and we need to finish in front of them. Of course, it is good for us if they don’t win with a P1 and P2.

“But even if they finish P3 and P4 ahead of us, it is still going to be almost mission impossible in Abu Dhabi.”