“We are free to fight,” Charles Leclerc hints at the Ferrari duo getting competitive with each other in 2022
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Scuderia Ferrari drivers Charles LeClerc(on the left) and Carlos Sainz Jr. (on the right)
The Italian-based racing team has a boastful legacy with legendary drivers like Michael Schumacher, Niki Lauda, and Sebastian Vettel gracing the driver’s seat throughout their history.
Last season, we got to see a completely new pairing for Scuderia Ferrari constituting the Monégasque driver Charles Leclerc and the Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr. LeClerc has already been hailed as one of the drivers to look out for, ever since he signed for Ferrari in 2019 replacing Kimi Räikkönen who retired last season. Sainz on the other hand signed for Ferrari ahead of the 2021 Formula One season following his departure from McLaren. This new duo at Ferrari quickly became famous as a pairing with LeClerc having two Grand Prix wins in his bag and Sainz finishing “best of the rest” in the 2021 season with him holding the 5th rank in the drivers’ standings.
What is to note ahead of the 2022 season is that the newly implemented rules and regulations will pave a way for all 10 teams on the grid to adjust better and hopefully stir up the grid order and put an end to Mercedes’ domination.
Scuderia Ferrari unveiled their much-awaited F1-75 challenger earlier last week through a digital launch event which was also graced by the two drivers. The F1-75 has been received pleasant reviews from fans already as the car is genuinely here to make a statement with otherworldly sidepods. Ferrari has put a lot of tokens and time into the development of its challenger. Ferrari will look forward to going back to winning ways this season with the Monégasque and Spanish duo in the driver’s seat.
“Free to fight”: Are Leclerc and Sainz going competitive this season?
At the launch event of the F1-75 at Ferrari’s Maranello base last week, Leclerc was spotted saying that the team has engaged in thorough dialogues and discussions to come to a suitable strategy to pose as a threat to the other teams on the grid.
He also said that the duo is “free to fight” one another: “Of course, we’ve discussed it, I think it was yesterday or two days ago,’ the Monegasque said. ‘Yes, we are free to fight, obviously without taking any stupid risks because we are fighting for the team, and the ultimate goal is to bring Ferrari to the top. But we’ll be free to fight.”
Team principal and engineer for Scuderia Ferrari, Mattia Binotto added that this discussion was much needed and that it’s only for the better of the team as a whole. “From my point of view, I was very happy to see these two drivers in a fully open, transparent discussion, showing a level of maturity,” the Italian said.” As we proved last year, they are getting on well together, but it’s not only the way you can see it from outside. When approaching that kind of discussion, it can be very delicate. I think that both of them are really showing and proving a fantastic level of maturity, which I’m very happy with.”
Pre-season testing commences today at Barcelona from 8 am GMT.
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Rishika Saha
(445 Articles Published)