Ferrari came into the 2022 F1 season with a team-first driver pairing, and it should stick to the plan.
Over the past few decades, Ferrari has entered just about every Formula 1 season with a clear, veteran No. 1 driver they expect to contend for a championship and a younger driver with significantly lower expectations to bolster their fight for a constructor’s title.
Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso, and Sebastian Vettel have performed that No. 1 role, while Rubens Barichello, Felipe Massa, an early-career Charles Leclerc, and a much older Kimi Raikkonen have served as the second driver to varying levels of success.
Last year, they instead came into a season with two young drivers and no real shot at a championship. They instead let their two young talents, Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr., fight for position among themselves throughout the season, resulting in a close battle narrowly won by Sainz. That was the plan heading into 2022, too.
But, when the Ferrari started leading testing sessions and real buzz about Ferrari having the best car on the grid once again started to pop back up, analysts started to speculate that Ferrari would need to quickly return to its recent model and institute a clear hierarchy. When Charles Leclerc fought for wins in all three races, while Carlos Sainz Jr. failed to finish one race and finished just behind Leclerc in two more, that choice seemed easy to make. Ferrari, however, is not sold yet. At least, not publicly.
As team boss Mattia Binotto told Autosport, Ferrari does not feel any pressure to put its full backing behind Leclerc just three races into a 23-race season. Sure, they could optimize points for Charles Leclerc, but the simple reality of the season is that Leclerc’s closest external title rival on pace through three races is Max Verstappen, who has scored points in just one of three races.
Charles Leclerc is the No. 1 at Ferrari … for now anyway.
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Eternal favorite Lewis Hamilton is in a car struggling to find pace, the other mid-field teams on the grid have failed to make a leap anything near Ferrari’s, and Red Bull second driver Sergio Perez is just five points ahead of his teammate Verstappen. Red Bull has only seriously rivaled Ferrari’s pace in one of three races, and Mercedes has not factored into the discussion up front at all yet. Ferrari is simply not actually under pressure yet, and Leclerc is under less pressure than the constructor.
Leclerc’s early 34-point lead is likely to come down as the season goes on, but it is substantial enough that the team does not need to start sacrificing results for Sainz to optimize Leclerc’s performance. Unless their rivals start catching them quickly, this is Ferrari’s season to lose. Leclerc mathematically cannot lose his lead next week, and any situation in which he does lose it over the next two races is one where Sainz is just as likely to pass him as anyone else. Pivoting out of the pre-season plan while the team is on top is an unnecessary complication, one that should only be made once Leclerc is in the heart of a closely-contested championship battle with someone else and Sainz is not. Right now, Ferrari is nowhere near an outcome like that.
A 46-point head start on Verstappen (and 43-point head start on Hamilton) is, simply, a substantial enough number to grant Ferrari enough time to let their drivers fight among themselves for at least another month. Even if Max Verstappen wins the next three races and second-place finishes by Sainz keep Leclerc in third, Verstappen will not pass the Ferrari driver for the championship lead. In this situation, three successive races of direct team orders would have saved Leclerc just nine total points.
It would earn Ferrari no more constructor’s championship points. It would also come at the opportunity cost of erasing Ferrari’s chances of fighting among themselves for a driver’s title, something no manufacturer has done since Mercedes let teammates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg battle over a stretch run in 2016. Ferrari came into the season with a plan, and right now that plan is working.
They do not have to abandon it any time soon.
From: Road & Track
Keyword: Why Ferrari F1 Team Should Not Pick a No. 1 Driver after Three Races