“The pecking order at Ferrari is already established” – Ralf Schumacher believes Ferrari has already chosen its leader in Charles Leclerc as it did in Michael Schumacher

Ferrari has already set the pecking order in favour of Charles Leclerc and that has made his teammate Carlos Sainz angry.

After finishing three races of the 2022 season and scoring two podiums, Carlos Sainz has still fallen 38 points behind his teammate Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc had a perfect start to the 2022 season. He took the pole position in Bahrain and then again in Australia. He is leading the drivers’ standings so far with 71 points.

Meanwhile, Sainz faced a problem with his motor in qualifying in Australia. Then he spun out of the race on the second lap.

How can Ferrari be offering Sainz only a 1 year contract while Leclerc is signed for eternity? Carlos, the driver that dragged them to third in constructors and finished above Charles just last year is treated like he’s been underperforming for the entire season 🤦‍♂️ #F1 #Formula1

— Simon Dau (@there_is_no_if) April 19, 2022

Even though it is too early to say, Ralf Schumacher believes that the team have thrown their support behind Leclerc already. In a similar way, Michael Schumacher also became the team leader with the Scuderia.

“The pecking order at Ferrari is already established,” he said. “Carlos Sainz knows that too and is correspondingly angry. There was a time when someone [brother, Michael] was very successful and it was also the case that you knew relatively early on which driver you were concentrating on.”

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Things could change with Charles Leclerc

Team boss Mattia Binotto, however, does not want to implement team orders on the drivers just yet. He insisted that both the drivers are still “free to fight” it out for more points.

Despite Sainz being on a 38 point deficit to the Monegasque, Binotto believes that there is still plenty of scope for things to change.

“It’s only three races which have been done now. There are still 20 races left, hopefully, 19 or 20. So the championship is still very long. Our drivers are free to fight. I am really looking forward and enjoying that they are battling for a good place, and first place, if possible,” Binotto said.

Furthermore, the Scuderia and Sainz have agreed to extend the contract at the end of the current season. However, a new deal is yet to be announced.

A report claimed that the Spaniard wants a two-year contract extension. The Italian giants are holding out to offer a one-plus-one deal with the second year being optional.

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