2022 has provided us F1 fans with a breath of fresh air. New teams and drivers challenging at the top, closer racing, tighter race finishes and a shake up of the order but to name a few.
One of the biggest revelations of the new F1 era, is to see Ferrari fighting for a title. For the first time in the turbo hybrid era, we are seeing a genuine title challenge from the Scuderia.
With such a title challenge means inevitably one driver will have to take precedent over the other (just ask Valtteri Bottas about that), and at the Italian outfit it was only ever going to be one man.
Ferrari invested in Charles Leclerc back in 2016 when he joined their driver academy. It was apparent the young Monegasque had something serious to offer, as in this year he won the then GP3 series (now called F3) at his first attempt. 2017 saw him win GP2 again, at his first attempt and with that came a seat at Alfa Romeo Sauber in 2018 alongside Marcus Ericsson. 2019 saw him join the Scuderia, and this leads us to 2022.
Last year saw a new dawn for Ferrari. Historically, they have almost always had a world champion on their books, fulfilling the role as “main driver”. Most recently they had Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen alongside each other, the latter being Ferrari’s last world champion.
Enter Leclerc.
During his 2019 season, he bedded into the team nicely, and in 2020 established himself as first choice driver ahead of the outgoing Vettel. Seb found himself replaced by Spaniard and resident F1 chili guru Carlos Sainz. This leaves Ferrari in the unfamiliar position of not having a world champion as one of their drivers.
Ferrari always said they do not have a “number one and two” driver, but most F1 fans know the score.
Sadly, for Sainz, his Melbourne performance combined with Ferrari’s ties to Leclerc mean he is destined to spend much of the 2022 season as the supporting act for the Monegasque. It is only a matter of time before we hear team orders, with Sainz likely to play rear gunner to former teammate Max Verstappen.
Does anybody know what the Italian for “Carlos, its James”?