Ferrari have been told Carlos Sainz Jr is 'more likely to trouble the top three' than Charles Leclerc by former F1 chief Trevor Carlin.
Leclerc has been widely considered Ferrari's biggest hope of winning a first F1 title since 2007, having finished second last year behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen. Carlin, however, believes Sainz is "terribly underrated" and will "deliver" for Ferrari if they give him a better car.
So far this season, Sainz has picked up 68 points and sits fifth in the driver standings while Leclerc has amassed 54 and is seventh. Sainz represented Carlin's Rodin Carlin team in 2012 back when he was a Formula 3 racer and Carlin told the Metro : "Carlos is steady, he's always there.
"He's had a couple incidents recently but I'd have to say the car isn't the easiest thing to drive on the limit and Carlos has been on the wrong end of some of the issues on the car. But at the end of the day, he still has more points in the championship than Charles.
"So maybe the headline qualifying pace hasn't been there for Carlos but if anyone's going to trouble the top three I think it's more likely to be Carlos than Charles. He's terribly underrated.
"In the wet with a good car underneath him he's staggeringly fast. I think it was 2012, I had a GP2 test in Abu Dhabi and I needed someone on the car. I phoned Carlos Sainz Sr. and said would you mind if Carlos came down and did a couple of days testing.
"He said, 'Yes, but why Carlos?', and I said I needed someone who can go fast. I got Carlos down, he had never driven the car before and he instantly went P1.
"That validated my decision to put Carlos in and showed just how fast of a driver he was. Give him the right product and he'll deliver." Despite both Sainz and Leclerc missing out on a podium spot at the recent Canadian Grand Prix, Ferrari enjoyed an impressive race with Red Bull's Helmut Marko admitting after the race: "Thank God Ferrari had to start so far back because they were actually the fastest on both compounds."
However, Sainz has moved to temper expectations ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, admitting the car is still very inconsistent. "I think our pace in Austria will depend a lot also in the characteristics of the circuit," he admitted.
"I think our pace varies a lot, depending on that. We've seen places like Monaco or Canada, we are stronger than places with higher speed corners like Barcelona where we struggled a bit more. So I think we will see variations in our competitiveness."
