The Monegasque driver is currently 63 points behind the current world champion, Max Verstappen, after his accident in the 2022 Formula 1 French GP when he was leading the race. Ferrari, meanwhile, is 82 points behind Red Bull in the constructors’ championship.
In a bid to narrow those gaps, Carlos Sainz will start second in the Hungarian Grand Prix race, behind the surprising George Russell, while his Maranello team-mate Charles Leclerc will start third.
The Dutch Red Bull driver suffered a serious problem towards the end of Q3 and will start tenth, ahead of his teammate Sergio Pérez , who also had to face several mishaps in qualifying and was eliminated in Q2.
But at Ferrari they still think they don’t need the help of team orders or make a divided strategy to defend themselves against Milton Keynes and make the most of their poor classification.
Responding to a question from Motorsport.com about whether team orders were necessary to make the most of setbacks by his main rivals, Leclerc said: “Honestly, I think we just have to do the best job possible.
“So we have to focus on ourselves. I don’t think we need to do any of that,” he continued. “Obviously we shouldn’t take any chances between the two cars, but that’s the logical thing to do.”
“So I don’t think anything special needs to be done for tomorrow,” said the Monegasque Ferrari driver, adding something else. “Max [Verstappen] starts 10th, so it may take a few laps to get back to the front, but we will focus on ourselves and try to win the race and do our best.”
His teammate Sainz reckons Ferrari ‘s best bet to take advantage of Red Bull’s problems will be to focus solely on overtaking Russell and claim victory.
“Tomorrow our goal is to win the race,” he said. “We don’t focus too much on Max’s position because we know that if we want to cut points in the championship, the easiest way to do it is to win the race.
“Regardless of where Max is, we want to go for the win,” concluded the Spaniard.
