Sainz turning into second driver? 'Difference not as stark as reality is'

Carlos Sainz had a dramatic weekend in Australia. The Spaniard qualified in P9 and crashed out early during the race. Jolyon Palmer believes that the Ferrari driver does not deserve to be so far behind teammate Charles Leclerc in the standings.

Sainz is currently in third place in the Driver's Championship, 38 points behind Leclerc. Last year the Spaniard managed to beat his teammate, but this season he seems to be getting off to a slower start.

The Ferrari driver will have to recover quickly to remain a candidate for the title, because with two wins to his name, Leclerc is starting to become the favourite for the championship. Sainz will need to put in better performances before he is assigned the role of second driver.

Former Formula 1 driver Palmer emphasised how tough the situation is for Sainz. "He doesn’t really deserve to be that far behind, so many things have just gone against him. It does seem he is morphing into the number two driver at Ferrari and it could have been so different. I don’t think the performance difference between the two drivers has been as stark as the reality is," he said on F1 TV.

Palmer continued: "He has to hit back soon otherwise the team will start galvanising behind Leclerc as they have a cracking chance to win this championship.” During qualifying in Australia, Sainz was unable to warm up his tyres properly due to the red flag for Fernando Alonso's crash, so there was no more in it than a P9. Just before the race, the Spaniard suffered a reliability problem and the team had to replace his steering wheel.