No number 1 between Leclerc and Sainz for 2022 at Ferrari

Like all the teams on the grid, Ferrari hopes to see the wind turn in its favor with the new technical regulations for 2022. The past season laid a good foundation for the future, with third place in the Manufacturers acquired against McLaren thanks to a solid second half of the season. With four podiums (Monaco, Hungary, Russia, Abu Dhabi) and 20 races finished in the points out of 22 contested (he only missed the top 10 in Portugal and France), Carlos Sainz signed his best career final ranking with fifth place, two places ahead of his teammate Charles Leclerc. A season of this level necessarily pushes the staff of Maranello not to appoint a leader before the start of the next financial year.

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“For the drivers, as we often say, I think it will be the track that decides, declares Mattia Binotto, director of sports management of the Italian team, on this subject. The team is always the priority. However, if they can fight for an important place in the championship, or even the title, it will happen on the track. And sometimes it's not just about talent. A driver may have bad luck, reliability issues, or accidents. So we don't need to decide between number one and number two at this time. We will discuss it in due course. » 

Mattia Binotto also looked back on Charles Leclerc's third season with Ferrari. According to him, the Monegasque was especially unlucky in 2021. “There are two examples, which are Monaco and Budapest, where he did not score a point (abandonment before departure to the Principality, embedded by Lance stroll at the first corner in Hungary. Editor’s note). It's hard to predict what position he could have finished in, but it's at least 40 points gone. This is why I can only judge this season positively. »