The British Grand Prix saw the Ferrari return to victory after almost three months in this 2022, the third affirmation of the season, the first in his career for Carlos Sainz who, at the 150th race in F1 in a single weekend, canceled the zeroes on the pole positions and victories won in his career. The choice of Ferrari under the Safety Car regime to call Sainz to the pits to change tires and not also the race leader Charles Leclerc sparked heated controversy among the fans of the Scuderia di Maranello. Cesare Fiorio, a former Ferrari team manager, instead stressed that from his point of view Carlos Sainz is not the wingman of Charles Leclerc. Below is his speech as a guest of the tenth episode of our podcast Raceweek.
“I saw the Grand Prix with some friends and as soon as I realized that a Safety Car would come out I said ‘if I were at the wall I would call the cars to mount soft tires’, which actually happened, but unfortunately this move was not also made against Charles Leclerc. I don’t know why they didn’t call him in, because at the time of the restart with the hard tires it was an uneven fight for Leclerc. Leclerc was not to be penalized in this way. Either way, it’s important to point out that Carlos Sainz is not Leclerc’s wingman. He is an equally good driver and is able to compete and carry out Ferrari’s results at a high level. Leclerc is certainly stronger than him in Qualifying, but by a few hundredths of a second, but in the race they are both worth the wheel in their hands. Sainz could have deserved this victory, he was not the wingman of another driver, he was a driver who was racing him. In terms of world points, despite the accidents he had at the beginning of the season, they are now very close in the standings. However, I didn’t understand why they didn’t put the soft tires on Leclerc too, even though this would have meant a double pit stop with a loss of two or three seconds, but no more. To the credit of Ferrari, however, it must be said that despite starting from very far now in this, Ferrari is the best car on the track and this is a great merit that Ferrari has been able to conquer ”.
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