Defiant Sainz the latest to highlight Ferrari’s vulnerability

Carlos Sainz has taken matters into his own hands at Ferrari a couple of times this season, and his courage of convictions has arguably shown up where the team have got it wrong in the past few years.

The Spaniard took his maiden victory in Formula 1 at Silverstone at the weekend in dramatic fashion, but there was plenty of back-and-forth on team radio regarding Charles Leclerc wanting to be allowed past Sainz and into the lead.

The swap eventually happened, but not after lap after lap of pontificating and conversation about doing so, before the Safety Car came out.

He then made the decision to tell his team to “stop inventing” when they told him to leave a gap to team-mate Leclerc at the front when the race restarted, assuring that having Lewis Hamilton behind without a slipstream to Leclerc would leave him vulnerable to attack – a choice which Martin Brundle then described as having “saved Ferrari’s day” when he took victory.

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Sainz duly stayed on Leclerc’s tail and swiftly swooped past his team-mate at Aintree to give himself the lead at Silverstone, with Leclerc running on much older tyres than those behind.

The Monégasque driver fought valiantly but could not keep a place on the podium, while the ruthlessness shown by Sainz put him on the top step for the first time.

Norbert Haug: “Unfortunately, it is part of Ferrari’s history that such blunders happen from time to time