Sainz shocked by Leclerc's "crazy" speed

Carlos Sainz has revealed he found team-mate Charles Leclerc's "crazy" speed "shocking" when he joined Ferrari.

Sainz arrived at the Scuderia ahead of the 2021 F1 season after two successful years alongside Lando Norris at McLaren.

Since his arrival in F1 in 2018, Leclerc has been held aloft as a future world champion but in his first year alongside the Monegasque driver, Sainz finished two places and five-and-a-half points ahead.

Asked what he had learned from Leclerc across the season, Sainz said: "What can I say? Many things.

"I would have to pinpoint a lot of them to be honest because since the moment I arrived to winter testing in Bahrain, I had a lot of things to learn from Charles.

"The way he was driving the Ferrari in a particular way to be as quick and as fast as he was all year.

"I had to adapt myself, I had to copy a lot of the stuff I was seeing on the data.

"Sometimes, it was difficult to believe it was possible to do that because he is so crazy quick that it was actually a bit shocking but little by little, adapting and trying to learn from him, I managed to get to a good level and there are still things where he is much stronger than me in certain areas.

"We will exchange some information and we will both try to become better drivers learning from each other. I think the tight battle and tight competition is what is going to bring [us] to a better level and also benefit Ferrari and ourselves.

"It is a great competition to have and a great team-mate to have, a great guy and a super guy to have as a team-mate."

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