Ferraris Leclerc and Sainz “as good as they can” as teammates

Sainz teamed up with Ferrari at the beginning of the 2021 season, switching from McLaren to replace four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel.

Sainz and Leclerc quickly formed a formidable partnership both on and off track as they helped Ferrari take third place in the Constructors’ Championship and recover from its worst result in 40 years with sixth place in 2020.

Ferrari took five podiums and two pole positions this year thanks to Sainz and Leclerc, which is a big step forward for the team before the new regulations in 2022.

Despite being one of the youngest line-ups in Formula 1, Ferrari sports director Mekies said the team from both Sainz and Leclerc had “very high quality feedback” and noted their motivation to learn and improve.

“We believe this is one of the strengths we are getting now, not only because they describe what they are feeling, but also because they have the will and motivation to come back and work with us to find solutions” , said Mekies in a selected media report roundtable including autosport in Abu Dhabi.

“They do it in different words so we can click things together. They don’t always agree, which in turn gives us the opportunity to look at things from a broader perspective.

“I think the short answer is yes, we think this part works well. There is always more because it is so.

“But the way they complement each other, Carlos and Charles, is as good as it gets right now.”

Sainz and Leclerc have made good friends off-track as well, refreshing the atmosphere at Maranello amid Ferrari’s urge to return to the top.

Carlos Sainz Jr., Charles Leclerc play chess

Photo by: Ferrari

The two are often seen together and in their first season as teammates developed a keen interest in playing chess together.

But Mekies felt the partnership between Sainz and Leclerc was “deeper than being friends”.

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“The level of respect, the desire to work together, the trust in both the characters and the technical skills is enormous,” said Mekies.

“Both share the same drive to move the team towards recovery. If you look around Saudi Arabia on Friday night, we weren’t great. We didn’t want to be satisfied with that.

“We never want to settle for that, but it was just that ghost, and it’s the penultimate race or whatever, just that ghost, there’s something more.

“We knew there was something in the car that we couldn’t quite grasp.

“Then the racing set-up was the racing set-up, but if you look at the first stint of the race before the first red flag, Charles was a comfortable fourth. [Sergio] Perez was in the back.

“This ultimately resulted in a strong racing pace.

“I think, long story short, these two guys, the way they work with us, how we’ve integrated them and how they contribute, is a very significant competitive advantage.

“We don’t want to stop here. We want to develop this further, because we think there is more to come. But it is certainly one of our strengths. “