‘Sainz doesn’t deserve to be so far behind Leclerc’

Jolyon Palmer feels Carlos Sainz “doesn’t really deserve” to be so far behind Charles Leclerc in the standings, saying his Australian GP crash was the result of a “perfect storm”.

And part of the blame for that storm belongs with Ferrari.

Sainz dropped 38 points behind Leclerc in the race for this year’s World title, prompting many pundits to claim that he’ll soon find himself as the support act to his team-mate’s title question if he doesn’t start winning, and soon.

While Leclerc has three podiums, two of which are race wins, to his name, Sainz has a P2, and P3, and now a DNF after crashing out of the Australian Grand Prix.

“It is really tough on Carlos,” Palmer told F1 TV.

“He is now 38 points behind his team-mate and championship leader Charles Leclerc. He doesn’t really deserve to be that far behind, so many things have just gone against him.

“It does seem he is morphing into the number two driver at Ferrari and it could have been so different.

“I don’t think the performance difference between the two drivers has been as stark as the reality is.

“He has to hit back soon otherwise the team will start galvanising behind Leclerc as they have a cracking chance to win this championship.”

What a ride it was

Fantastic effort from the team and @CarlosSainz55, to go on a run like this.

Let’s try and beat it #essereFerrari #AusGP pic.twitter.com/fKMzm0QcKn

— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) April 12, 2022

Palmer believe Sainz was the victim of a “perfect storm” in Melbourne with two issues blighting his qualifying, leaving him P9 with Leclerc on pole position.

The first of that was the red flag for Fernando Alonso’s crash, the Alpine driver putting his A522 into the wall just as Sainz was about to complete a hot lap that