Charles Leclerc has been offered the full support of his team mate as he bids to win his home race for the first time.
Carlos Sainz Jnr will start today’s race two places behind his pole-winning team mate, but said overtaking is so difficult in Monaco “in a normal race it’s impossible” for him to win.
“Then the focus will be to see what we can do with the two cars to win the race with Charles, that he’s in the best possible position to do so,” said Sainz after yesterday’s qualifying session.
Leclerc has never won his home race in five attempts, despite winning pole position twice. He didn’t start in 2021 due to a pre-race technical failure and the following year a tactical blunder by Ferrari cost him the lead of the race.
Sainz hopes today’s race is more straightforward as his team mate’s run of misfortune at home comes to an end.
“Obviously in Monaco, you never know, all sorts of things can happen. But if I win tomorrow it’s probably because something weird has happened with Charles with strategy or with Safety Cars, that I hope they don’t in a way.
“Obviously we all want to win, but at the same time, I feel like Charles deserves to win in Monaco after his unlucky run. He’s been extremely strong all weekend, and here in the past, so tomorrow is a day to kind of wish that nothing happens and see if we can win with Charles.”
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Sainz scored both of Ferrari’s two wins in the last 12 months, including in Singapore where the team used Leclerc strategically to help their leading car. Sainz is prepared to return the favour today.
“We will see what we can do at the start, what we can do with strategy in order to do every single bit possible to help Charles to go and get that win,” he said.
“He’s been driving amazing all weekend. I think part of that [time] delta comes from Charles also being super-committed and having a particularly strong weekend.
“This weekend I think he’s been on it since FP1 and he’s been extremely quick. So we will do everything we can to win the race tomorrow.”
2024 Monaco Grand Prix
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