Laurent Mekies confirms ‘it’s still too early’ for Ferrari to place team orders. Laurent Mekies on team orders.

The new generation of Formula 1 cars which was introduced for the 2022 season does not seem to fit perfectly with Carlos Sainz’s driving qualities. The Spaniard has only 53 points, while Charles Leclerc has almost double (104) despite only five races having passed. So how should Ferrari approach the situation? In Maranello they do not want to talk about team orders, but it is clear that they are thinking about it or have already thought about it: on the other hand, if Carlos Sainz were to recover, closing the gap on Charles Leclerc would be almost impossible. And above all, for Carlos to recover would mean for the Monegasque to lose some points, while the Spanish driver should also gain against Max Verstappen who seems to be an unbeatable when his RB18 car arrives at the checkered flag.

In short, a ‘table’ hierarchy has not been drawn (for now), but it will soon need to be established. These are basic guidelines expressed by sporting director Laurent Mekies in the press conference ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix: “Carlos Sainz has practically half of Charles Leclerc’s points, yes, but he has nevertheless reached the podium several times. It is true that the car suits him less. We have to give him time to adapt and for our part we have to develop the car in his direction. For the moment it is too early to place team orders between him and Charles. We are pushing hard to make sure Carlos adapts to the car as best and fast as possible. There are still too many races left to think about team orders.” – Laurent Mekies explained.

The Frenchman added some considerations on the package of updates that Ferrari brought to Montmeló and on the budget cap, another hot topic: “It’s our first aerodynamic package and we didn’t have a real weakness to fix. So with this development we aim to improve performance and reduce porpoising. These are still the early days of this update pack. We take our time to understand it and to better adapt the set-up. In FP3 you will still see some experimentation in terms of setup. Budget cap? There is still work to be done, as is obvious when there are new regulations such as the financial one. We must try to ensure some flexibility. With the financial regulations, the teams have created a dedicated department.” – the Ferrari sporting director concluded, ahead of the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix.