Ferrari: “Leclerc and Saint free to duel”

After his worst weekend with Ferrari at the Australian Grand Prix, where a series of problems left him in 9th place and led him to retire and abandon the race, Carlos Sainte is already 38 points behind winner Charles Leclerc of Bahrain and Australian GP-in the ranking list.

But the year has only just begun, with 20 GPs remaining, and Maria Binoto reaffirms her initial promise that the ‘anointing’ of the team’s priority on one of its two riders for this year’s championship will go to the winner. But that moment hasn’t come yet.

Many F1 pundits, such as Eddie Irvine – a former Scuderia driver in the days of Michael Schumacher – have suggested that Ferrari should rush to give Leclerc the upper hand to protect him from Max Ferstappen and Red Bull Racing in the title race .

However, Binoto says there will be no such decision by the Italian team at this point: “You can fight freely, I think that’s important to us. It is very important for Carlos to show his speed and he will come back stronger. I will enjoy their fight for a good place in the championship!”he stressed.

Speaking on the difference between Leclerc’s performance from Saint so far and the – as it turns out so far – dominant Ferrari F1-75, the Italian said: “I think the last year was important for him (Leclerc), for his maturity. If you look at tire management it’s been very good (in Australia) and that’s something it’s learned. If we compare it to his first year F1, it’s definitely a big change.”

Finally, the Scuderia strongman refused to be seduced by the Cavallino’s performance: ““We don’t have the league under control at the moment, there have only been three games.” he said.

“We’re still focused on each individual race and that will be our approach for the next ones. We know you have to be perfect to have three good days and win. That’s how it was in Bahrain. In Jeddah we weren’t perfect and we lost. “We give our best in every game and we will do the same at Imola and in the following games.”