Opinion: Alex Kalinauckas

The Italian squad is focused on turning its fortunes around. A key part of that will be maintaining as harmonious a relationship as is realistically possible between its drivers

“Sainz has twice almost fallen off the F1 carousel, arguably through little fault of his own”

It was intriguing to watch Antonio Felix da Costa and Jean-eric Vergne collide during the second Formula E race in Riyadh last weekend and wonder how their DS Techeetah team had not solved its team-mate racing tensions. Rewind 12 months, and the sparks of a flashpoint were already flying after Vergne had aggressively edged his team-mate towards a wall in Santiago, before a team-orders flare-up occurred in Mexico City. DST went on to secure a second title double come the end of that marvellous run of Berlin races, with da Costa extending its run of drivers’titles to three, and all was well. Until, again, it wasn’t last weekend.

The day before the black-and-gold team-mates needlessly flirted with disaster, the Formula 1 squad most recently grappling with intra-team war was sending a clear message on this topic. “There is not a single individual that counts more than the team itself,”said Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto, flanked by Charles Leclerc and new signing Carlos Sainz Jr at its 2021 launch.

During the past two F1 seasons, since the Netflix-immortalised clashes between Haas drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen, Ferrari has chalked up the most significant teammate rancour. Once Leclerc’s rise through the ranks as a Ferrari junior was capped by his promotion to be Sebastian Vettel’s team-mate, their on-track relationship rapidly combusted.

Leclerc took a while to be a regular frontrunner during 2019, but he landed an early blow in his fight with Vettel in Bahrain, when he defied team orders to retake a lead he would later cruelly lose to an engine cylinder failure. By the time Leclerc was soaking up the Tifosi’s adoration on top of Monza’s famous podium – and how quickly F1 yearns for such joyous, crowd-filled scenes to become the norm once again – he’d landed another blow by not giving Vettel a tow during the farcical final runs in qualifying. All was forgiven by his victory, but then there were further team-order controversies in Singapore and Russia, before it all blew up spectacularly at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

For all the pain of those moments, there was a clear winner, Leclerc rewarded with a lengthy new contract, and Vettel told his Ferrari time was ending before the 2020 season had even started.

Even after a clear victory in the team-mate hostilities, there was to be another collision, as Leclerc wiped out Vettel at the start of the Styrian GP, although this embarrassing gaffe was more to do with Ferrari’s new star gambling to gain places early on rather than trying to make another point about team status.

Vettel is now preparing for a new start at Aston Martin, with Sainz taking his place. The Spaniard is living a dream of many F1 racers: pulling on the red race suit and climbing aboard a Ferrari.

Sainz’s story is one worth paying attention to. His famous surname creates a“shadow”he says“i will never be out of”, but that’s simply a reflection of his admiration for his double World Rally champion father. He’s highly rated, with a reputation for relentless racing often cited as one of his hero Fernando Alonso’s best traits. Yet Sainz has twice come close to falling off the F1 carousel. That was arguably through little fault of his own, as Red Bull’s young driver stable became too saturated and Renault discarded him in favour of Daniel Ricciardo, now his replacement at Mclaren.

Sainz’s recent qualifying results against F1 team-mates suggest he may struggle to match Leclerc on pure speed (his

8-8 draw against Lando Norris was his best result since beating Daniil Kvyat 8-6 in 2017, before heading to Renault and ending that season on a 3-1 defeat to Nico Hulkenberg).

But Sainz’s progress at Mclaren was clear to see – his generally calm head impressed the team, and Ferrari was watching from the sidelines. His determination was clear at Monza last year as he chased Pierre Gasly hard in the closing stages, overcoming the disappointment of a safetycar pitstop that cost him the chance to win when Lewis

Hamilton and Mercedes gave the race away.

Sainz has a hard task to get on Leclerc’s level in 2021, given the reduced testing and design carryover requirements mean his new team-mate has a wealth of 2020 experience to draw upon.

But this season is surely set to be one of rebuilding for Ferrari.

The real pressure, for both Sainz and Ferrari’s management, will come if/when it gets back to fighting at the front of the grid. There are early signs that Ferrari won’t repeat its 2020 disaster in 2021, but 2022 remains the most likely early chance for it to return to title-challenging status.

In recent years, only Mercedes has really proved that it can handle two drivers battling at the front, and even that comes with the caveat that outside opposition hasn’t regularly been a substantial threat. So, Ferrari is wise to sow seeds of peace as early as possible.

Alongside this, Sainz now has his own unique challenge – to establish a home in what is clearly Leclerc’s team, while writing his own legend.