Can Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finally end Ferrari's winless draught and bring the glory days back to Maranello?

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have been great for Ferrari in the last two seasons. The 2021 F1 season saw the team finish 3rd in the championship, while the 2022 F1 season saw Ferrari finish the season second in the championship.

Leclerc too had his best season in F1 as he finished the championship in P2 while Sainz secured his first-ever win and pole position.

The 2023 F1 season is a crucial one for the Italian team. It has shown growth in the last two seasons as it has gotten close to the very top. The Ferrari CEO however, is targeting a championship for the team this season.

It is at this point that we ask the most important question: Can it actually be done? Can Ferrari get back to winning titles? Most importantly, in Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, does the team have the right drivers to bring back the glory days at Maranello? Let's take a look.

In short, the answer is yes! In Charlese Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, the team has the drivers needed to get back to winning titles. Both are fast and in all fairness, even last season, the roles were starting to get defined about what either of the two was going to do if a title battle unravels.

If a team has to operate at the topmost level, it needs a driver with elite talent that helps the team accomplish those goals. At the same time, it needs the second driver to just be a tier below the lead driver so that whenever the lead driver messes up, the second driver can pick up the scraps.

The 2022 F1 season has shown that Ferrari has two drivers that fit this role perfectly. Charles Leclerc has proven that he clearly belongs in the top tier of drivers in F1 while Carlos Sainz showed last season in Silverstone and a few other races that he will be there to pick up the pieces when Leclerc has an off-day.

Can Ferrari provide the tools for Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz?

This is the most important question in F1 whenever we try to determine the prospects of success for any team. When we talk about providing the tools for success, it's not just about the car.

The car is one part of the equation. The other part is the in-race execution and the planning that goes in the background.

How good is a team when it is under pressure? How good/bad is the strategic unit when it comes to marginal calls? How efficient are the pitstops? How efficient are the simulation tools before the team even reaches the track? How decisive is the top management when it comes to making tough calls?

It's questions like these that determine a team's success these days. When we talk about Ferrari, the team has shown the capability to produce a car good enough to fight for the title. The issue surrounds the team's operational efficiency. This was a major handicap last season and that is where improvements need to be made.

Has Ferrari made those improvements already? The answer to that question is still unclear and it will take a few races to reach that conclusion.

What about the competitors?

Comparing Ferrari to Red Bull and Mercedes, it's quite glaring where the Italian team lacks. When it comes to building the machinery, there's not much of an issue. Ferrari can compete and even beat its competitors on that front. Neither are Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. The issue for the team is operational efficiency.

One can clearly see that while teams like Red Bull and Mercedes were able to keep things simple, Ferrari was indecisive and that cost the team big time.

This was evident in Silverstone where the team's lead driver Charles Leclerc lost a ton of time behind his teammate and Ferrari let that happen. Ideally, you would not see something like this happen in Red Bull or Mercedes and that's where the key difference lies. The Italian team, on evidence of what it did last season, is just not there yet when it comes to winning titles.

Final verdict

Finally, if the question that we have to answer is whether Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz can help Ferrari reach the top, then the answer is - yes.

However, at the same time we have to understand that while having strong drivers is important, a strong driver lineup - Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz - cannot paper over all the cracks. Ferrari needs to look within instead of looking at the drivers if it wants to bring back the glory days.