Among the fans of the Ferrari the most frequent criticism of the work of the Maranello team is that of not having immediately chosen a first and a second guide between Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. The impression is that the overwhelming majority of Ferrari drivers would have liked the Monegasque to be given the number one chevrons since the first race in Bahrain, with Smooth Operator in the role of second guide, so as to lose as few points as possible from Red Bull.
If he had been Ferrari’s team principal, Franz Tost probably wouldn’t have had any doubts. While appreciating Sainz, and despite the fact that he had the Spaniard in the team from 2015 to 2017, he believes that Leclerc is of another kind: “Carlos is talented and hard working. He is very good and can drive at the level of Charles, as long as everything is fine for him. But in terms of pure speed, Leclerc is two tenths faster: this is clear and evident“, These are the words reported by NextGen-Auto. The Austrian compared the Leclerc-Sainz situation to another that he is experiencing first hand, such as the one between Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda, current AlphaTauri drivers: “The Frenchman is also very talented, like Carlos. He thinks carefully about everything and is very focused. With the right car, he can fight for the top. Yuki has crazy sheer speed, but she needs to clear her head. You have to drive more carefully, not in an emotional way. If she can do this mentally, she can become a great driver. But unlike Pierre, she now she depends on him“.
Tost finally expressed his opinion on Daniel Ricciardo, his other former pilot. The Australian could even be excluded from the 2023 grid due to his poor performance at McLaren: “I remember Daniel as a fast driver. I am a little surprised at what is happening to him because he technically understands an F1 car from A to Z and knows how to best adapt it to his driving.“.
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