German professional racing driver and BMW Motorsport works driver Timo Glock feels that it is only a matter of time before Scuderia Ferrari will choose to “prioritise” Charles Leclerc as they attempt to win the Formula 1 World Championship in 2022. The Australian Grand Prix at the Albert Park Circuit ended up being completely different for Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, which puts a clear distinction between their prospects for the 2022 Formula One championship.
The Monegasque driver had a perfect weekend in Melbourne, achieving his first grand slam (pole position, fastest race lap and leading all 58 laps of the grand prix), thus establishing a 34-point lead in the Drivers’ standings over Mercedes’ George Russell.
However, in complete contrast, his Maranello team Carlos Sainz, who was second and third in the first two events of the current season, one place behind his colleague each time, had a terrible weekend in Australia. The Spaniard was not able to complete a clear run in the final stages of qualifying and therefore had to start from P9 in Melbourne. Ferrari tried a different tyre strategy with the hope of helping him recover, but Carlos had a poor start on hard tyres which he struggled to get up to temperature and, after dropping to 14th, spun off and got beached in the gravel, as he tried to recover the lost ground as fast as possible.
Despite the fact that he remains in P3 in the championship, Carlos Sainz now has a 38-point deficit and he needs to quickly recover some points and get close to his Maranello teammate. Instead, Sky Germany pundit Glock believes that what happened in the Australian Grand Prix will determine Scuderia Ferrari to focus on Charles Leclerc and consider him the driver to put all their weight behind the Monegasque driver in the title fight with Max Verstappen, which could mean team orders coming into play before too long.
“Leclerc is on an absolute high at the moment,” said Timo Glock, who competed in 91 grands prix for Jordan, Toyota, Virgin and Marussia, scoring three podium finishes – ” Within the team, the leader is already relatively clear at an early stage. I’m sure Ferrari will prioritise Charles as quickly as possible in certain situations. Not yet to such an extreme, of course. But Leclerc is the World Championship leader and Carlos Sainz is already a certain distance behind him.” – he added.
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