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Formula 1 has an astonishingly close battle in 2021 that’s even more finely balanced than the title fight – even though the two competing drivers claim they are not that excited about it.
Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc are only separated by half a point in the drivers’ standings.
The unusual margin is a result of the controversial decision to award 50% points at the Belgian Grand Prix but the closeness of the two drivers is a testament to the strength of the line-up – which Ferrari has regularly claimed is the best on the 2021 grid.
Though it is not high stakes, this championship battle will matter to the two Ferrari drivers in one way.
They will inevitably care who finishes ahead, because that’s a matter of personal pride. Each will want to be the lead driver in the championship regardless of what the position is.
But this is hardly a contest for a coveted prize. Neither Leclerc or Sainz care about finishing over seventh – especially as it’s not a matter of ‘best of the rest’ given how far ahead Lando Norris is for McLaren.
Leclerc speaks for both drivers when he says: “We’re very close together and it’s good to see that. It’s good for me as it’s also good for Carlos, we’re pushing each other after every race.
“But in the end to finish sixth or seventh isn’t that exciting.
“Hopefully we can do a good enough job to gain some of the positions before the end of the championship.”
Each driver has a second-place finish as their best result but Sainz has three podiums to Leclerc’s one and has also racked up more points finishes (14-12).
The headline statistics flatter Sainz slightly as Leclerc has been the stronger driver – but as Sainz is only in his first season at Ferrari, leading Leclerc in the points heading into the final six grands prix is impressive.
Regardless of who wins this fight, Ferrari is benefitting massively.
The ultra-close performance of its two drivers is rewarding the team with good consistency and the confidence that if one driver has an issue – like a grid penalty, a mistake, or a mechanical problem – the other will be there to perform at the level the team requires.
That has been evident on several occasions this season. When Leclerc’s qualifying crash in Monaco prevented him from starting from pole position, Sainz finished second in the grand prix.
Sainz was on the podium again when Leclerc was eliminated from the chaotic Hungarian GP, and he finished third in Russia, where Leclerc had charged up the order after a grid penalty but got caught out by late rain.
At the next race, where it was Sainz’s turn to start from the back, Leclerc was a podium contender and led the grand prix for a spell before finishing fourth.
Every year, in every team, one driver will perform better than the other. The trick for each team is to try to get the second driver scoring almost as many points as the first – the more closely matched they are, the better the teams’ championship prospects.
HOW EACH TEAM’S ‘SECOND DRIVER’ IS STACKING UP
Percentage of lead driver’s points tally after 16 races
Charles Leclerc – 99.57
Esteban Ocon – 79.31
Lance Stroll – 74.29
Valtteri Bottas – 69.01
Daniel Ricciardo – 65.52
Sergio Perez – 51.43
Nicholas Latifi – 43.75
Yuki Tsunoda – 24.32
Antonio Giovinazzi – 16.67
Haas – n/a
Leclerc has comfortably the best point-scoring rate in percentage terms as the ‘second driver’ at Ferrari (and we’re calling him that purely because of the championship positions).
That’s especially impressive – and valuable for his team – given Sainz has one of the highest points tally among the ‘lead drivers’, which means Ferrari has more than double the points of the next midfield team Alpine and is just 7.5 points behind McLaren in third.
“It’s certainly a target that we have already communicated to the team,” said team principal Mattia Binotto.
“Everybody is on board with that. It would be great to finish third. Working with the clear objective is important for us because it’s a way of working under pressure and being trained to do that.
“Our objective is to finish third at the end of the season.”
And the near-as-makes-no-difference points tallies of Sainz and Leclerc are the reason Ferrari is still in with a chance of achieving that.
