Formula 1 is a unique sport, in that, more often than not, your teammate is the only man you’re fighting against. Naturally, over the years, we’ve seen inter-team rivalries take the headlines. Ayrton Senna v Alain Prost, Lewis Hamilton v Nico Rosberg, the list just goes on. But the teams have an antidote to this problem. It isn’t uncommon in F1 for teams to have an express no. 1 and no. 2 driver situation. Even if in the media they don’t say so, the driver contracts would be a good testament to that fact. Ferrari has been infamous for this, during the supreme reign of Michael Schumacher with Rubens Barrichello as his designated side-kick. But in the modern era of the sport, the Scuderia plans to do things differently. And this might be to Charles Leclerc‘s disadvantage.

We’ve seen it in the past, drivers being able to successfully complete a title bid when the team gives them that all clear. However, a heated inter-team squabble isn’t going to be beneficial at all to either of the drivers. But the team from Maranello believes the opposite to be true. As it would appear, going into the 2023 season, there isn’t a clear no. 1 driver at Ferrari. Both Leclerc and teammate Carlos Sainz have been given the green signal to unleash hell upon their rivals and each other in pursuit of eternal glory. But what does the man who was touted as Ferrari’s future think of this?

When Leclerc signed for Ferrari, he was shouldered by the Tifosi on the back of the claims that Ferrari was going to build around him. But two years after that, in comes young gun Carlos Sainz, and the team seems to be whistling a new tune. RACER.com quoted the Monegasque as saying, “No, I completely agree with this philosophy, you cannot start a year like this.” 

“I think it’s important for Carlos and I to be fully motivated to do the best job possible in the first part of the season, to push each other to perform the best.”

“Then if at one point in the championship a driver is fully in the fight for winning that championship then I’m sure the team will do everything possible for the driver that fighting for the championship to be in the best possible conditions. For this we’ll talk later obviously, but at the beginning of the season I think it’s the right thing to do,” explained the 25-year-old.

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Leclerc has been known to echo these sentiments even in the past. But if history is anything to go by, this may have already doomed Ferrari’s championship hopes.

Why Ferrari cannot afford this new philosophy

On paper, the whole idea of letting both teammates slug it out without any team orders seems to be a fair approach. That being said, given the constraints of modern Grand Prix racing and the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix, it doesn’t seem as though Ferrari can sustain this philosophy for too long.

During the Sprint Race, Sainz got a jump on Leclerc at the start. What ensued after was a multi-lap squabble between the two Ferrari teammates, as they ate out their tires and gave Max Verstappen an opportunity to build an invincible lead. Leclerc himself came out after the event and said, “Probably tomorrow we cannot afford to do what we did today,” referring to the main Grand Prix on Sunday.

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Do you think Ferrari letting their drivers jostle for the championship lead from the very get-go is a good idea?