Formula 1, Irvine: “Ferrari must give priority to Leclerc”

Eddie Irvine is one of the most able F1 drivers to speak on the very touchy subject of a Ferrari driver’s priority – having played a supporting role for Michael Schumacher in the late 1990s.

Regardless of whether Irvine got the chance to get his driver’s license in 1999 after Sumy was injured at Silverstone that year, it was clear in those years that Ferrari counted him as the No. 2 driver, behind superstar Schumacher, who hoped she would made team and fans for their first title since 1979.

With Charles Leclerc winning two of the first three Formula One GPs this year, Irvine says Scuderia need to recruit an “old-fashioned” and slightly more elegant priority for Monegasque to maximize their hopes of their first drivers’ championship since Kimi Raikkonen in 2007

And also to protect Leclerc from competition from Max Ferstappen. Although the Dutchman is already 41 points behind the Ferrari Champion, this can be attributed to his two retirements due to Red Bull RB18 mechanical problems.

At the same time, Carlos Sainte has started this year with very poor results, much worse than predicted in his excellent first season with Ferrari. The highlight was the Spaniard’s 9th place start in Melbourne, due to various problems in the qualifying tests, and then his retirement after retiring from the second lap of the race.

Matthias Binotto recently stated publicly that he will not focus the team’s priority – at least not directly – on either of his two drivers. “It’s a problem,” Irvine told Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport.That’s a problem for Charles because Saint, who is the second driver, can be in front of him at times. If I were Matthias, he would give orders exactly as he did in my day.

Because Ferstappen is very difficult to beat anyway. [Πόσω μάλλον] if you have one teammate which can take points away from you. “As for Perez, under normal circumstances he can’t beat Max.”added the Irishman.

Concluding, Irvine said he thought Ferstappen was the fastest driver in F1 but was still prone to making mistakes: ““I don’t think there is anyone faster than Ferstappen but he still makes a lot of mistakes while Leclerc doesn’t make any.”