Once known as the king of Saturdays, Charles Leclerc has since lost that throne. He added five more poles to his tally in 2023 but hasn’t looked the best over one lap in any of the race weekends in 2024. On the other hand, his teammate Carlos Sainz is busy proving his worth to the entire grid. The Spaniard has outperformed Leclerc in all the race weekends he’s been part of so far. Barring Bahrain, Sainz has the qualifying head-to-head in his favor as well. Overall, the Spaniard has been a step ahead of his teammate so far. However, Leclerc wants to change that in China.
Sainz has been the driver putting Ferrari on the top step of the podium since last season. For his post-2023 summer break performance, he has earned the plaudits from the entire F1 world, including his teammate. Speaking to Motorsport Week, Leclerc conceded, “I think it’s as simple as he’s doing a better job.”
Leclerc also admitted he’s been lacking in his qualifying pace which, as pointed out earlier, is one of his strengths. However, the Monegasque is ready to pull up his socks and challenge his teammate in Shanghai. He revealed, “I’ve been working a lot on that and normally when I work on points I’m quite confident on improving pretty quickly. So I’m not worried, but obviously, now I need to show that on track starting from tomorrow in qualifying.”
The #16 driver is ready to take the Saturday crown back and he plans to make his case starting from the Chinese GP qualifying. This will surely put some pressure on Sainz as well.
However, the way the Spniard is performing, it’s difficult to see him knocked off the current #1 driver perch he’s sitting on at Ferrari. In fact, he needs to maintain these levels as well, for a better brighter future.
What does the future hold for Carlos Sainz?
Carlos Sainz has had the best start to a season so far in his almost decade-long F1 career. It will be extremely beneficial for him if he can maintain this level throughout the season. Why? Well, it’s because he’s still without a seat for 2025. The Spaniard is putting himself out there with one incredible performance after the other to prove his worth.
However, people in F1 have short-term memory. That is exactly why it will be in Sainz’s best interest to finish ahead of his teammate at the end of the current campaign. So despite all the links, Sainz needs to keep performing at a high level.
High enough to put him in pole position for all available seats at Mercedes, Sauber (soon to be Audi), and even Red Bull. The 29-year-old has been linked with the vacant seats on all three teams. However, nothing is concrete yet in this silliest of silly seasons.
Precisely why if Sainz keeps performing at this level, he will have the pick of the crowd. Then he would like to go to the most powerful team, which at the moment is Red Bull. So from now until the end of the season, it’s all to play for.
