“Team orders will soon be ‘inevitable’ at Ferrari,” warns Palmer
For Jolyon Palmer, Ferrari will eventually have to use team orders during the season, in order to favor Charles Leclerc over Carlos Sainz.
Choices will have to be made. The Scuderia Ferrari and team orders, that wouldn’t be anything new. And while they are still waiting for one of their drivers to become world champion since 2007 with Kimi Räikkönen, the red team could use team orders to try to bet everything on one of their two drivers.
Even though it is still early in the season, Charles Leclerc already appears to be gaining the upper hand over his teammate Carlos Sainz for a leadership role in the Scuderia this season. With a 53-point advantage over the Spaniard, the Monegasque driver could be favored by his team in the coming months in an attempt to secure his first world championship title.
For Jolyon Palmer, team orders will be used at Ferrari this season, there is no doubt about it. « I hate team orders, but it is probably inevitable. It will probably happen around mid-season, let’s say. »
But for the British, asking Sainz to step aside won’t be an easy thing. « I can almost guarantee it won’t happen this weekend if it does happen for Carlos. Can you imagine telling him he has to step out of the way? He has never won a race, so it’s more delicate for Carlos. », before adding: « He also beat Charles in terms of points last year, so I don’t think it will happen right away. We can all see the direction he’s taking, but never say never, and it only takes a few bad races for him to go back on this point. »
Palmer thinks that the instructions will not arrive this weekend, since Sainz is racing in front of his home crowd in Barcelona. « But there is no way that this will happen at the Spanish Grand Prix. It would be so annoying for Sainz to step aside for his teammate at this stage of the championship, and he will always think that he can become the champion. He can cling to a glimmer of hope. »
The former Renault driver also believes that a collision between Verstappen and Leclerc, at this point in the championship, could reignite the race for the title for Sainz and Pérez, so it is too early to give team orders. All they need is a Barcelona 2016 scenario, where both championship rivals take each other out, someone else comes in to win, and they’re back in the fight. So things can change, and I think it’s too early to give team orders. Currently, Charles Leclerc has a comfortable lead of 51 points over his teammate, while Carlos Sainz has failed to finish in the points twice already this season.
