On Wednesday night, Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz was presented with one of the prestigious “Caschi d’Oro” (Golden Helmet) awards, for his great 2021 Formula 1 season, hist first alongside the Maranello team. The award was presented by Italy’s famous motor sport magazine, Autosprint.
The event is usually held in Milan, at Formula 1 tyre supplier Pirelli’s premises. Apart from every name you could possibly have heard of in Italian motorsport, other racers come from further afield, but, as expected, due to the COVID restrictions, this year the event took place online.
The Spaniard joined Scuderia Ferrari ahead of the start of the 2021 F1 campaign as was expected to be behind Charles Leclerc in the internal pecking order, but after just a few races we saw the first signs that Carlos Sainz had settled in at the Maranello team much faster than some of the other drivers who changed teams this year, a feeling which grew stronger with his progress in the second part of the championship.
Scuderia Ferrari had a strong finish to the season, also helped by the power unit upgrade, which allowed the Italian side to beat rivals McLaren and take P3 in the overall Constructors’ Championship behind Mercedes and Red Bull, but there was an individual achievement for Carlos Sainz to be proud of. He ended up as the highest-placed non-Mercedes or Red Bull driver in the standings, finishing ahead of his former and present team-mates Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc – whom he outscored by 5.5 points at the end of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, thanks to a great P3 at the Yas Marina circuit.
Carlos Sainz did not have a single DNF and finished in the points 20 times this season, with the other two just outside in P11, The Spanish driver scored four podiums, great performance given the fact that the SF21 car was still far behind Mercedes and Red Bull in terms of race pace.
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