Ferrari will not have a No.1 driver in 2022 with any team orders dictated by circumstances on the track, team boss Mattia Binotto says.
Though Charles Leclerc had established himself as the lead man at the Scuderia in 2019 and 2020, last year he was beaten in the Drivers’ Championship by new teammate Carlos Sainz by 5.5 points.
The key to the Spaniard’s success was incredible consistency. He was the only driver to finish every race last season, scoring top 10’s in 20 of the 22 Grands Prix, including four podiums and a worst result all year of P11.
Leclerc was also unlucky on a few occasions, such as failing to start after taking pole in Monaco, albeit after crashing at the end of Q3, and was also taken out at the start in Hungary.
But Sainz believes the final championship result was fair and showed Ferrari’s neutral approach to their drivers.
“You can always look at the year race by race, and in some races, there wasn’t and in others there was, but after 22 races luck pays off and everyone ends up where they deserve to be,” he was quoted by Marca.
“Ferrari doesn’t care which driver finishes ahead of the other, it was only important to be third [in the Constructors’ Championship], the most important thing.
“At Ferrari, there is no leader, although few believe me and it was demonstrated at the end of the season. Two good drivers leading and directing the team, and I think that will continue to be the case and I think it’s their thing.
“To finish behind the top four cars [Mercedes and Red Bull] that are one second faster, you think being first of the rest is symbolic and a good symbol for those of us behind.”
In a year when most drivers who changed teams or joined the grid struggled, Sainz also bucked that trend by matching Leclerc from the start.
And the Monegasque concedes it was an education alongside the second-generation driver.
“I learned a lot,” he said.
“As always when you have a new teammate you always learn, [such as] the new ways Carlos is approaching race weekends, the way he works, his talent, his raw speed also, the way he takes the corners.
“He had an amazing year, so he obviously pushed me very, very much to try and perform better at every race and it’s just been extremely interesting.
“I think one of the strong points of Carlos is the race management and tyre management, and that was probably my weakness in 2019,” Leclerc added.
“I progressed a lot as a driver in 2020 and again last year, and part of last year was thanks to Carlos.”
For 2022, Ferrari has high aspirations of using the new regulations to once again fight at the front of the grid.
And with two equally matched drivers, team boss Binotto accepts he has to let them race.
“In terms of the drivers, as we often say, it is on the track that we dictate it,” he told GPFans.
“The first priority is always the team, but no doubt both Charles and Carlos can compete for an important position in the championships. It will be the track that will tell who’s ahead.
“Sometimes I think it’s not only about driver talent and driver capacity. A driver can be unfortunate and have damage or reliability issues, crashes.
“But certainly, we will not have a policy of number one and number two, but we simply discuss it based on positions on track whenever it will be done.”