Ferrari insists Charles Leclerc will be allowed to win the Bahrain Grand Prix regardless of Sebastian Vettel’s position.
On Saturday, the Monegasque became the second youngest driver in Formula 1 history to claim pole position, interestingly also becoming the 99th different polesitter in the 999th race.
However, immediate questions were raised as to whether the Scuderia would consider team orders to favour Vettel over his teammate, having also told Leclerc to hold station in the final laps in Australia.
“Charles is allowed to go as fast as he can,” team boss Mattia Binotto told Sky Sports. “He’s allowed to go for pole, he’s allowed to stay ahead. We are not stopping him doing that.
“I think it is important that our two drivers are not fighting and taking any risks battling together.”
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The topic was put to the drivers too, with the four-time world champion claiming the team result was the most important consideration.
“We have a very, very tough race ahead of us tomorrow,” Vettel said. “We need to work as a team and try to make sure we stay first and second.
“We’ll see how it goes. I think it is pretty clear, Charles starts ahead. He has the advantage of pole position.”
Meanwhile, Leclerc made his stance pretty clear on what his ambition will be.
“To be completely honest we haven’t done the pre-race meeting yet, so at the moment I don’t know,” he said initially.
“If you ask me I will do absolutely everything to keep my first place but we’re a team also and we need to work together.”