Ferrari presented with another chance to favour Leclerc

Date published:July 13 2022-Oliver Harden

卡洛斯·塞恩兹(Carlos Sainz)在奥地利大奖赛中逃脱了火。斯皮尔伯格2022年7月

当时一级方程式赛车在4月底离开伊莫拉(Imola),但只有法拉利(Ferrari)才能发现机会的规模在他们面前。

Two victories in the first three races had made Charles Leclerc the overwhelming favourite for the 2022 World Championship – remember those days? – with his emergence as a title contender only emphasised by the troubles experienced by team-mate Carlos Sainz.

当勒克莱克(Leclerc)在巴林(Bahrain)和澳大利亚赢得了胜利,以确认法拉利(Ferrari)的确回来了,塞恩兹(Sainz)在以两个领奖台开始了本赛季后,尽管公开承认很难与新的F1-75掌握,但突然挣扎着保持汽车的努力在轨道上。

Two disastrous weekends in Melbourne and Emilia Romagna had seen Sainz fall 48 points behind his team-mate in the Drivers’ standings, and as reigning World Champion Max Verstappen was beginning to strike back from his early-season unreliability it was time, surely, for Ferrari to throw their full support behindLeclerc

But for the team who committed arguably the most brazen team orders sin in F1 history – this year marks two decades since Rubens Barrichello was told, and told again, to move over for Michael Schumacher in Austria – Ferrari were reticent and almost fatally fair.

Sainz had become a popular and valued member of the team since arriving at the beginning of last year, and when drivers are formally cast in the support position there is normally no way back. AsValtteri Bottas很快,与梅赛德斯的刘易斯·汉密尔顿(Lewis Hamilton)一起发现,边锋角色是生命的,不仅是在匈牙利的一个下午。

Ferrari’s reluctance to break Sainz’s spirit was honourable but, in a title battle against Verstappen with the full force of Red Bull behind him, not particularly wise, and perhaps there was a hope that the situation would simply resolve itself through the irresistibility of Leclerc’s performance level.

如果不是因为他在巴塞罗那和巴库领先的发动机故障,以及法拉利在摩纳哥的战略错误,这也可能会出现,这确保了勒克莱克在三场比赛后,勒克莱克在九场比赛后获得了49分49分的优势。

And when Leclerc was again the victim of a Ferrari strategy mis-step at银石, left exposed on old tyres behind the Safety Car as Sainz pitted before passing the sister car to claim his maiden F1 win and close the gap between them to 11 points – he would have been forgiven for wondering which side his team were really on.

The contrasting emotions in the garage at the British GP added an extra element of intrigue as the Ferraris went wheel to wheel on the opening lap of the sprint race in Austria last Saturday.

As Sainz attacked, it felt as if Leclerc was fighting not only to preserve second place but his status within the team.

Sainz, for his part, was typically mature in combat, leaving plenty of space on the inside of Turn 4 – a corner where George Russell and Sergio Perez and, later, Pierre Gasly and Sebastian Vettel would collide the following day – for Leclerc to reclaim the position.

Yet the battle only served to illustrate the lack of organisation at Ferrari, for when the squabbling stopped Verstappen had already checked out, leading by more than a second at the end of the first lap before taking his second sprint win of 2022.

尽管如此,Leclerc仍然坚持使用Red Bull戒指的轮胎的法拉利,这是他丢失的至关重要的地面部分阻止了他真正显示出来。

在周日的凉爽条件下,他的直觉被证明是正确的,因为Leclerc几乎被运送回了本赛季的开始,当时一切看起来都很轻松,在三个不同的场合经过Verstappen。

A sticky throttle pedal in the closing stages was the only real threat to Leclerc, who took his first victory in exactly three months and would almost certainly have led Ferrari’s second one-two finish of 2022 had Sainz not suffered a spectacular engine failure while lining up a move of his own on Verstappen.

Once again the Ferrari garage was home to both joy and despair after the race, but might Sainz’s fourth DNF of the season finally encourage the team to favour Leclerc in all conceivable scenarios until the end of the year?

如果塞恩兹(Sainz)最近几周一直在建立动力,那么其中的大部分在他在施泰里亚(Styria)的汽车中散发出的烟雾中丢失,将差距重新开出来,因为赛季达到了中途。

发动机故障后,法拉利的卡洛斯·塞恩兹(Carlos Sainz)逃离了他的燃烧汽车。斯皮尔伯格,2022年7月。

With Leclerc himself still 38 points adrift of Verstappen, the likelihood of Ferrari ending their 15-year wait for a Drivers’ title remains rather remote, yet there is now an opportunity to recalibrate Sainz as an asset to Leclerc rather than a threat.

遵循似乎是突破性的表现Canadalast month, Sainz declared he now felt comfortable enough with the F1-75 to push flat-out “without any fear of losing the car.”

他的信心增长不仅在西尔弗斯通(Silverstone)确保了自己的第一个杆位,而且在周五在奥地利的资格赛中,他到达了维斯塔彭(Verstappen)杆位的十分之一。

如果他在其余11场比赛中可以维持他的进步步伐,那么塞恩兹在将宝贵的积分从Verstappen带走的角度上可能扮演重要的角色,就像Perez沮丧的Leclerc在Imola的旋转中一样,实际上,Bottas通常协助汉密尔顿。

勒克莱尔(Leclerc)尽管他的才华,但不能独自做到这一点,塞恩兹(Sainz土地。

法拉利在早些时候拒绝施加控制season could so easily have resulted in civil war on Saturday as Leclerc, wounded by his recent run of misfortune, fought to hold back his rejuvenated team-mate.

因此,在这种情况下,不可抗拒的力量通常会遇到不可动物的物体,并且,如果它们发生碰撞,它冒着发展最避免的竞争和团队自己制造之一的风险。

But Sainz’s retirement on Sunday, combined with Leclerc’s long-overdue return to winning ways, has reset the situation and handed the Scuderia a second chance to get it right with team orders.

For the sake of their title hopes, it is not one they can afford to waste.