“What does Carlos lack to be on the level of Verstappen? Only a car capable of winning the world title “. Carlos Sainz senior he has no doubts about the value of his son, who has now become an established top driver on the F1 starting grid. The Madrid driver made his debut in the Circus in 2015 at the wheel of the Toro Rosso alongside the Dutch prodigy who attracted all the spotlights and stormed the highway towards the top Red Bull team reached after just four races of the 2016. Sainz instead had to go further to settle in a top team and dream of the world title, but after convincing in Renault and, above all, in McLaren, Ferrari decided to focus on Sainz to complete the duo of drivers with Charles Leclerc after Sebastian Vettel’s adventure in Maranello came to an end after six years.
Verstappen became world champion in 2021, the goal not only of Carlos Sainz, but also of Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque is the same age as the Dutchman, but unlike the Red Bull driver he had to wait until 2018 to make his F1 debut. Max arrived in the Circus after just one year in the F3 European Championship due to a theatrical coup by Helmut Marko, who in order not to lose a diamond in the rough like Verstappen guaranteed him a seat in F1 when he was not even of age. Leclerc instead had to do the ‘mess tin‘conquering the GP3 and F2 titles as a driver of the Ferrari Driver Academy. In 2018 Charles finally made his F1 debut with Alfa Romeo, earning a promotion to Ferrari on the track in 2019 in place of Kimi Raikkonen.
Both therefore have an open account with Max Verstappen, who in 2022 will show off on the nose of his RB18 the number 1 that both Ferrari drivers aspire to. If he were in team principal Mattia Binotto, Ivan Capelli would not establish a hierarchy between Leclerc and Sainz with the engines off, leaving this task to the track: “Ferrari must prepare to manage two drivers with the same ambitions and the same chances of winning – declared the former driver also of the Scuderia di Maranello in 1992 as reported by today’s edition of The Gazzetta dello Sport – it is we Italians who think we need a hierarchy, the British have often put two stars on the track, I am thinking of Mansell-Piquet at Williams or Senna-Prost in McLaren. It will be the season, to create it, the hierarchy“.
In 2021 Carlos Sainz, despite starting ‘at a disadvantage’ compared to Leclerc in terms of experience in Ferrari, managed to precede the Monegasque in the drivers ‘standings by winning four podiums with Charles’ ‘only’ second place at Silverstone (although on the occasion Leclerc drove the race for fifty laps). A not indifferent result from Sainz, ‘survived’ even in comparison with Lando Norris in McLaren. Mattia Binotto declared that he had no doubts that he could count on a couple of drivers that he believes to be the best in the Circus. If the 674 project does not disappoint expectations, the ‘checkmate’ that Leclerc and Sainz give each other could be worth more than the victory of a chess match.
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