Ferrari must 'prioritise' either Charles Leclerc or Carlos Sainz to prevent Max Verstappen from a 'successful title defence' in 2022 F1 season, claims F1 journo

F1 journalist Daniel Moxon believes that Ferrari must 'prioritise' either Charles Leclerc or Carlos Sainz if they want to prevent Max Verstappen from successfully defending his F1 title.

In an opinion piece for Mirror UK ahead of the 2022 F1 French GP, Moxon wrote:

“Ferrari team chief Mattia Binotto (has been) particularly resistant to the idea of picking one of his racers over the other. But that attitude is going to have to change sharpish if the Italians hope to prevent Verstappen from a successful title defence.”

He explained his argument by saying:

“The Sprint in Austria was a prime example of why Ferrari need to act now if they hope to have one of their drivers beat Verstappen to the trophy. Their cars were faster that weekend, as proven in the main race itself, but the Red Bull star was able to win the short-form event comfortably while Leclerc and Sainz bickered among themselves.”

Ferrari has so far avoided interfering in favour of a single driver, instead allowing both to have equal opportunities on the track. However, this approach has cost the Scuderia on many occasions, with infighting allowing Red Bull and Max Verstappen to take the upper hand.

At the British GP in Silverstone, the Scuderia allowed an opportunity to secure a 1-2 finish slip away by letting Sainz and Leclerc to bicker among themselves rather than attempt a coordinated attack on Verstappen.

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Charles Leclerc 'proven himself' capable of leading Ferrari to championship victory

Daniel Moxon believes Ferrari should 'make no room for sentiment' and choose Charles Leclerc as the lead driver for the rest of the 2022 season.

Despite Sainz being equally capable, Moxon believes Leclerc stands a better chance at winning the title than the Spaniard. In his Mirror UK column, he continued:

“The Spaniard is fast enough to be a world champion but has suffered some dreadful luck this year – no racer has more DNFs in 2022, and it could be argued that none of them were his fault. But F1 can be a cruel sport, and there can simply be no room for sentiment when it comes to the decision over a lead driver.”

He added:

“At some point, they will have to decide who to prioritise, and Leclerc has generally proven himself to be faster this year when neither car has suffered from reliability issues.”

Charles Leclerc (170) trails Max Verstappen by 38 points in the drivers standings. Carlos Sainz, meanwhile, sits at P4 with 133 points – nearly 40 points adrift from his teammate.