Carlos Sainz has been on a strong run of form as of late, with the Spaniard having turned a corner since claiming the first victory of his F1 career at the British Grand Prix.
Whilst Ferrari failed strategically at the recent Hungarian Grand Prix, Sainz managed to recover a top five finish at the French Grand Prix, despite starting from the back of the grid.
The Spanish driver also had a podium stolen from him at the Austrian Grand Prix, as his engine once again gave way, in fiery fashion.
Sainz’s calmness and decisiveness has been praised recently, with 1996 World Champion Damon Hill going as far as calling the Spaniard Ferrari’s “team leader”.
READ: ‘No need to flirt with another woman’: Toto Wolff on Mercedes signing Daniel Ricciardo
Sainz has at times taken decisions into his own hands and has communicated well with his team, whereas team-mate Charles Leclerc has been quick to lose his cool and on a number of occasions snap at his side.
Ferrari’s racing director Laurent Mekies was asked if Sainz’s recent performances have been enough to make him the team’s lead driver, given how well he’s reacted to his bad start to the season; however, Mekies remains adamant that the team don’t have a team leader, just “two very, very good drivers”.
“So you are very right in saying that Carlos has had three extremely strong weekends; Silverstone, Austria, France,” he said.
“We are very, very happy with that. It did not show up so much on the final race classifications besides Silverstone because we had other things to deal with.
“But you are very right in saying that he has made great progress since the start of the seasons.
“We made no secret at the beginning of the year that naturally the car was not suiting him very well.
“We had to work a lot with him, with his engineers, with everybody back in Maranello to make sure we can give him something he is more comfortable with. And these things take time.
READ: Christian Horner comments on Red Bull poaching Mercedes engineer
“And slowly, it seems that we are heading towards the right direction, which is another great sign for the team and the way we interact. So I think that’s where it is.
“Does it make somebody a leader or not? No, it doesn’t, it is not what makes a leader or not; We know we have two very, very good drivers
“We treat them in a way that we can maximise our championship positions and we want them as fast as they can possibly be.”