Former Ferrari director Cesare Fiorio believes Fernando Alonso committed fewer errors with the team compared to Charles Leclerc.
Alonso began his journey with Ferrari back in 2010 and almost won the World Championship that year. Unfortunately, at the Abu Dhabi GP, he got stuck behind Vitaly Petrov, extending his wait for the title.
Alonso then departed from Ferrari in 2014 after missing out on another title opportunity in 2012.
In 2019, Leclerc joined Ferrari and ended up displacing Sebastian Vettel, a four-time world champion. Leclerc collected two wins in his debut season.
Even though Leclerc made mistakes, he tried his best to work on them. However, Fiorio thinks that Alonso fared better than the Monegasque driver in several aspects.
“The comparison with Alonso seems a little disproportionate to me because Leclerc, despite being very strong and able to set incredible times above the possibilities of the car, still makes some mistakes. Alonso at the time committed less,” said Fiorio, Ferrari’s director between between 1989 and 1991.
With Vettel leaving Ferrari, Leclerc found a new teammate Carlos Sainz for the 2021 season.
Fiorio believes that Sainz is a “guarantee” for Ferrari.
“In my opinion, Sainz is very strong and already in the race is as strong as Leclerc. But in qualifying he still makes some mistakes, probably because he still doesn’t know the car well. But he’s definitely a driver who’s a guarantee,” Fiorio explained.
“The driver pairing is very strong. I hope Sainz will be quick in qualifying as well when he has finished adapting to Ferrari.
“Ferrari have progressed compared to last year, although they have not eliminated the gap entirely to Mercedes and Red Bull yet.”
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