F1, team orders between Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz? Ferrari takes a stand

A problem experienced as such more outside Maranello than within it.

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have more than once battled on the track during this Formula 1 season, so much so as to generate doubts that there were hierarchy problems within the team at Ferrari. Doubts, however, have mainly concerned the fans, or at any rate those who have watched the Grand Prix from outside Maranello. This is what Laurent Mekies, sporting director of the Cavallino, assured.

“There is more talk about this issue outside than inside Ferrari,” Mekies said in an interview for ‘Motorsport.com.’ Speaking even more seriously, on our side clarity has always been absolute. Our goal is for the team to get the best possible result. Because first of all comes Ferrari. If the standings require it, then the time to focus on one driver at the expense of the other may come.”

Words that make it clear that, at the moment, there are no internal hierarchies between Leclerc and Sainz. And moreover, Ferrari would not, according to Mekies, have established a “buoy” past which team orders would arrive. “We will not wait for specific mathematical differences. It may happen, however, that we arrive at a point in the season when at the team level we will consider that to be the right way to behave,” the sporting director added.

Finally, a joke about strategies, which have drawn a lot of criticism of Ferrari this year. “During the current season we have lost many points. We have also encountered reliability problems, there are several aspects in which we need to improve. And to do that we are working very hard,” Mekies concluded.