There is no denying the fact that Charles Leclerc is a generational talent, just like Max Verstappen. You don’t need much more evidence beyond the fact that he was promoted to Ferrari after just a single season at Sauber and beat a 4-time world champion, Sebastian Vettel, fair and square in his debut season in the red. There is also a case to be made about his qualifying prowess. Many in the wider F1 community believe that the Monegasque is the fastest driver on the grid over a single lap, evidenced by his ability to put a car, that isn’t a race winner, on pole position at will.

However, for some reason, whenever Ferrari has got even the slightest chance to win a race in the last two seasons, despite Red Bull’s might, it’s the other Ferrari driver, Carlos Sainz, who has capitalized on the situation and scored a win for the Scuderia and not Leclerc. The Australian Grand Prix was the perfect example of this. After Max Verstappen retired from the race due to rear brake issues, it was Sainz who delivered the win for Ferrari. This has led to speculations that maybe Charles Leclerc doesn’t have the best setup or some kind of other technical difficulties.

However, in his recent live chat on YouTube, former Ferrari boss, Peter Windsor made it clear that it’s actually Carlos Sainz who is making Leclerc drive a poor race. When asked by his subscriber if Leclerc was suffering from setup issues in Australia, Peter said that it wasn’t so much the setup, but the brilliance of Sainz that made Leclerc destroy his Pirelli rubber. “Carlos [Sainz] just read that [Pirelli tires] perfectly and got it right,” Peter explained. “And the minute Carlos was in the groove and quick Charles [Leclerc] was completely shocked and started overdriving the car and putting too much heat in the tires particularly sector 2 and then crushing the sidewalls as a result.“

“And that’s what we saw, Charles Leclerc not doing a very good job with a car that was very well set up and actually a very good racing car, good enough to be on the front row in Charles’ hands on a perfect lap, probably good enough to take the pole. And he didn’t because Carlos did such a good job. So I saw a very different thing there. I don’t think that setup was a problem for Charles, I think he had a good car, he was completely discombobulated by the compound range that Pirelli brought whereas Sainz wasn’t,” he concluded.

However, it’s not the way the Monegasque looks at the situation. He believes that his teammate makes him a better driver, not worse.

Charles Leclerc enjoys being pushed hard by Carlos Sainz

Ferrari scored their first 1-2 finish since the season opener in Bahrain in 2022 with Leclerc coming home in second. When asked about his race after the fact, he admitted that he was struggling a bit with tire management during the race, particularly in his second stint on hard tires.

When questioned about whether he could have done more to challenge Sainz for the win, he simply recognized that Sainz had outperformed him throughout the weekend, especially in qualifying, which is often his bread and butter. However, Leclerc also expressed excitement about the competitive dynamic between them. He was quoted by Motorsport.com saying, “It’s been that in the last three years, where we basically will arrive at one race and Carlos will be better and then I’ll push and then I’ll be better at the next race and then we’ll improve like that. And that’s very exciting as a driver to have such a fast team-mate.”

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Do you think Charles Leclerc will outperform Sainz at Suzuka, where Ferrari is already expecting to have a very strong car? Share your predictions in the comments down below.