Ferrari praise drivers’ team spirit after exchanging places twice in 2021 Mexico GP. Ferrari praise drivers’ team spirit.

Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto confirmed he was happy with the way in which Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz worked together in the 2021 Mexico City Grand Prix, as the Maranello team’s drivers swapped places twice when instructed by the Italian side at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit.

In the final stages of the race, Carlos was on fresher tyres, having extended his first stint on mediums, which led to Ferrari’s request to Charles to let his teammate by in order for the Spanish driver to have the opportunity to attack Pierre Gasly for fourth place in Mexico. Charles Leclerc complied, and Carlos Sainz returned the position on the final lap of the race, after not being able to catch Pierre Gasly in the closing laps.

Mattia Binotto explained how the Maranello team planned the strategy with their drivers prior to the Mexico City Grand Prix:

“It’s a scenario we discussed this morning during our usual strategy meeting. We knew that at some stage in the race, maybe because we somehow made a different strategy between the two – one stopping early, the other one staying longer on track and the one staying longer with a tyre disadvantage by the end of the race. So we knew that this could have been maybe an opportunity to try to catch up to the driver ahead, who was Gasly. But that was on paper, and we said by doing that, we would have given an advantage to one of the two drivers. So we stopped with the intention to try to catch up Gasly and then swap back if that would not have worked and we did it. So I think it has been a good team spirit.” – the Ferrari boss said.

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Carlos Sainz was able to build an advantage to his teammate as he tried to reduce the gap to the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly, but was unable to get close enough and evetually backed off heavily through the first sector on lap 69, sacrificing a 6.4-second advantage over the sister Ferrari give the position back to Charles, who finished the Mexico City Grand Prix in P5.

“It has been, in the collaboration of the two drivers, great – the way it has been managed. It’s not easy when you are six, seven seconds ahead, we need to slow down so much to swap again to give back the position. But the best thing is that they both understand the situation at the moment. So we tried whatever we could try to catch up Gasly. But when we realised it would not have been possible, we simply kept the initial positions.” – Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto concluded.