F1 Team Factfile: Ferrari

As the 2021 season edges closer to starting we will be looking at each F1 team ahead of the new season. Moving onto Ferrari who have stuck with Charles Leclerc but picked Carlos Sainz as their number two driver.

Ferrari

The Italian manufacturer is one of the trailblazers in Formula 1 and has achieved so much over its 70-year history in the sport.

Recording 237 wins in their history, the Scuderia’s last Driver’s Champion came in 2007 with Kimi Raikkonen and ever since they have come so close yet so far.

The Maranello faithful will hope that Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz can bring the Ferrari back up to onto the top step after a dreadful season in 2020.

Charles Leclerc

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The 23-year-old Monegasque driver stepped into Formula One after very successful F2 and F3 careers, winning the Driver’s Championship back-to-back before entering the elite level.

After a year, the Italian outfit persuaded Charles Leclerc to join them and ever since he has been put as the number one priority as he looks to bring the Scarlet Red team success once more.

After accumulating 264 points in 2019 and finishing fourth in the Championship, it was a massive surprise when the Ferrari driver could not even get beyond the 100 point mark.

The car was simply undrivable as the former Alfa Romeo man could only score 98 points and finished eighth in the Drivers Standings. He will be hoping that a better car this year can propel Ferrari up the grid and into a Championship fight once more.

Carlos Sainz

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Moving onto his fourth team in F1, Carlos Sainz has been improving steadily and has grown into a real fan favourite with fans all around the world loving the Spaniard’s style of driving and the level of humour that he shared with McLaren teammate, Lando Norris.

After two consecutive sixth-place finishes in the Championship, the 26-year-old will want to prove his real quality in the Ferrari car but will be wary of the reliability issues the car had last season.

Even though that may still be the case, Sainz will no matter what prove that he is a frontrunner once more and battle for every position like he usually does.

If the Ferrari proves to be a surprise package this season, the Spaniard may have a better chance at performing closer to his new teammate but firstly will need to integrate into the team and get used to the car before he looks to challenge the top field cars.

Prediction for the season

After Ferrari’s awful season last term, the Italian-based team will be hoping to deliver a car that can keep up with the frontrunners as it used to and that the reliability issues have been resolved within the team which will cause fewer retirements and more points being picked up.

With two up and coming stars in the sport in Leclerc and Sainz, the fans can hope to see plenty of aggression and hunger from the pair as they will not hold off any battles.

This will be all depending on whether the car can compete with the frontrunners and if not they may have to settle for a mid-table finish in the Constructor’s Championship once more.

After finishing eighth last season, Leclerc will look to finish a lot higher and reach the 100 point mark for the second time in three seasons.

He knows that the team have put him as number one for a reason and he must prove his worth and be able to outscore Sainz this season, but if that does not happen it may cause the team to do a bit of thinking ahead of the 2022 campaign.

The Spaniard has come to Ferrari to prove a point and he will look to do so. If he can push Leclerc to his limits, then Sainz has ultimately achieved his goal in only his first season.

Sixth was his finish last season and he will know well how much he wants to improve that and if he has the machinery behind him that will enable him to battle up at the top, he may well smash 100 points and reach bigger and better things in the Scarlet Red Ferrari.

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