Schumacher: 'You get the impression they want Red Bull to be champion'

F1 News

12 July 2022 at 20:20
Last update 13 July 2022 at 08:14
  • GPblog.com

According to Ralf Schumacher, Ferrari have given the impression that they want Red Bull Racing to be world champions. The team will have to make a choice between its drivers, but in the future the tension between Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz will only increase.

In the opening laps of the sprint race for the Austrian Grand Prix, Leclerc and Sainz battled it out for second place. As a result, the Ferrari drivers lost sight of Max Verstappen, who was able to build a gap towards the rest of the field. "If Ferrari, your B-team or C-team, keep helping you, then it's good. You get the impression that they really want Red Bull to be world champion", Schumacher tells the German branch of Sky.

Schumacher understands little of Ferrari's strategy. In Silverstone, the team gave the better strategy to Sainz, while Leclerc had to continue on old tyres. The German analyst thinks Ferrari wanted to make sure Leclerc ran away with victory in Austria.

Tension between Leclerc and Sainz increases

"They probably want to push Leclerc again now, but both drivers don't agree. I think you can see that. They were very hard on each other. Maybe Leclerc could pull away a bit or Sainz was called back, I don't know", he continues.

Schumacher thinks team boss Mattia Binotto is going to have a tough job managing the two drivers. "There is no longer an agreement. At the moment the two wouldn't go on holiday together either. They don't really look at each other either. You do notice that."