Part two of our F1 team mate head-to-heads series looks at how the Ferrari drivers measure up against each other.
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jnr have regularly been among the most closely-matched team mates on the grid since they first paired up at Ferrari in 2020. That remains the case in what will be their final season together before Sainz heads off to Williams.
In 2021, Sainz surprised by beating his established team mate by five-and-a-half points. Leclerc comfortably held the upper hand in 2022, when Sainz made a poor start to the season. But it was nip-and-tuck last year, Leclerc only moving ahead of his team mate when Sainz had a disastrous final weekend in Abu Dhabi.
At the summer break this year, Sainz is ahead by a single point, and can point to his absence from the Jeddah race due to appendicitis to explain why the gap is no larger. Leclerc might respond by pointing out the power unit problem which ruined his race in Canada.
Not unlike the situation at Mercedes, the driver who trails on points is ahead on the key performance metrics, though Leclerc is less decisively ahead of his team mate than George Russell is his. It serves to underline Frederic Vasseur’s point that letting Sainz go when Lewis Hamilton came calling was no easy decision, and that Williams have achieved a coup by securing his services for next season.
A key strength of Sainz’s remains his ability to stay calm during rapidly changing conditions, patiently assess the situation and not be rushed into a hasty tyre call. As the Silverstone round demonstrated, this is a trait Leclerc would do well to learn from his team mate, before he goes up against the might of Lewis Hamilton next year.
It has taken Sainz all of the first part of the season to sort out his plans for next year. He has admitted it has been a distraction at times, but now that’s behind him he can spend his final 10 races as a Ferrari driver ensuring he goes out on a high. This will be a scrap to savour over the rest of the year, especially if Ferrari solve the problems with their SF-24 and get in contention for wins again.
Leclerc vs Sainz: Season summary
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Leclerc vs Sainz: Race-by-race
Unrepresentative comparisons omitted. Negative value: Leclerc was faster; Positive value: Sainz Jnr was faster
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