As Ferrari lines up a pair of promising and ambitious young Formula 1 drivers, Mattia Binotto explains how he intends to avoid internal tensions, the like of which the team experienced with Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc.

After a more than complicated season, Ferrari aims to get back on track and to mingle more regularly with the fight for the podiums.

For this, the Scuderia has decided not to keep Sebastian Vettel, who has signed up with Aston Martin. To replace the German, the Italian team has finally bet on Carlos Sainz who continues his progression after successful stints with Toro Rosso, Renault and then McLaren.

The Spanish driver arrives with nice ambitions and will be confronted with another very promising young driver, namely Charles Leclerc who will start his third season with Ferrari.

A duo that could therefore make some sparks sure and off the track. But in order to avoid a clash between these two promising and ambitious drivers, Mattia Binotto has a plan. A plan to avoid the clashes of 2019 between Vettel and Leclerc, to keep Sainz the new driver on a leash as such, to fight for the team and not individual glory.

“It’s really about trying to progress as a team – and the team also includes the drivers – and I think that comes from transparency, from trust.” says Binotto,

“I think the relationship is going very well. We’ve had a lot of discussions over the last few weeks, a lot of exchanges. It is very important to understand each other.

“But I am very confident about that. I am confident because of the way we started. It proves that we have a lot of hope for the future. Certainly, it is important to score points for the team, in the constructors’ standings.

“Both drivers know that. For us it is certainly important that they both do their best because the sum of the two points for the drivers is essential for the constructors at the end of the season.”

This is a very familiar rhetoric we’re used to hearing from the team boss, and certainly the story he used to paint ahead of a Grand Prix weekend just after a huge clash on track between Vettel and Leclerc.

“I expect Carlos to be very fast and competitive this year, because I know that Charles will be, as he was last year. We will certainly need a good car to perform better, but I expect both of them to perform well, and I hope we will have a more successful season, better, than last year”,