Carlos Sainz exceeded expectations during his debut season in the Ferrari and surpassed his teammate to become Ferrari’s underdog.
Carlos Sainz finished the season with fifth place in the drivers’ championship leaving his teammate 5.5 points behind on the seventh position.
Former F1 boss, Bernie Ecclestone thinks that the Spaniard’s success in comparison to Leclerc even surprised those in Ferrari garage this year.
The 91-year-old said, “Carlos Sainz’s father called me and told me about his son’s situation. Let’s put it this way… many people in Maranello are surprised the Spaniard was able to give team-mate Charles Leclerc such a run for his money in 2021.”
However, this conclusion did not surprise Ecclestone. He said, “for me, Leclerc was always a very good driver but not any more [than that].”
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Ferrari stresses cooperation to maximise performance
In 2019, the Monegasque signed a five-year contract with the Italian giants and replaced Kimi Raikkonen. That deal got further extended by another two years, taking him all the way to 2026.
However, coming out of Ferrari Driver Academy, Leclerc got outpaced by Sainz in terms of podiums this year at a rate of four to one.
Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto believes that Leclerc has been unlucky this season. He said that Leclerc lost 40 points only because of bad luck in the 2021 season.
Going forward, Binotto is positive that the new car that has undergone the technical changes of 2022 has checked all the boxes. He said that the team is encouraged that everything is going according to plan in its design and development.
Furthermore, Binotto also stressed the importance of cooperation in order to maximise performance.
“What I think will be important is being capable of understanding weaknesses and addressing them very quickly,” he said.
“We cannot be confident of having a competitive car from the start. You never know what may happen when you’ve got such a big rule change. But it is about being capable of addressing it as soon as possible,” he further added.
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