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Carlos Sainz had a solid start to life at Ferrari as he bagged eighth place in his first race for the team. He was, however, both outqualified and outraced in Bahrain as his teammate Charles Leclerc would get the better of him on both Saturday and Sunday.
The young Monegasque driver ran as high as third at one point in the race before getting overtaken by the quicker McLaren and Red Bull of Lando Norris and Sergio Perez respectively later in the race. However, there are quite a few Formula 1 pundits who feel Carlos Sainz will fare very well against Leclerc.
One of the biggest advocates of that is former world champion Jenson Button. Button feels that Carlos Sainz has the right ingredients to succeed at Ferrari and even get the better of Leclerc.
“I think Carlos will get closer to Leclerc very soon,” Button said via Sky F1. “I spoke to the McLaren engineers and they told me the Spanish driver is basically an engineer. He has a very intelligent approach and works closely with the team for many hours.
“That’s great, of course, because he doesn’t let his emotions get the better of him when it comes to getting the most performance out of the SF21. He doesn’t go over the top when he drives and we saw that throughout the weekend in Bahrain. He’s a great guy and Ferrari can boast of having a great pair of drivers."
How does Carlos Sainz stack against Charles Leclerc?
It's hard not to look at the team rivalry at Ferrari and favor Charles Leclerc to get the better of Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard has had a solid career so far and it seems he took a step forward during his time with McLaren.
But when you compare that to Leclerc, who is a once-in-a-generation talent alongside Max Verstappen, it's hard to pick against the Monegasque driver.
Carlos Sainz could challenge him on occasions, but during the span of a season, Leclerc is going to keep the edge. Even at Bahrain, Carlos Sainz was the lead Ferrari driver in multiple practice sessions, but when push came to shove, Leclerc pulled off the lap to qualify fourth on the grid while Carlos Sainz languished in eighth.
Ferrari do have a solid lineup in Sainz and Leclerc, but the latter will likely pull out a decent margin in front of Sainz during their time together.
