Windsor: "Leclerc would never want Ricciardo in the other car"

Adaptations of driving style

"Carlos is doing a really good job at being mister nice guy", Windsor says. "Last year he didn’t crash much. I think he did that by coming back a little bit on his overall pace. I think he’s a reactive driver. Obviously he’s got some subtle touch and feel but in order to be consistently quick over a race distance and indeed in the wet I think subconsciously he’s come a little bit away from his natural driving limits which provoked too many errors."

"And i think if he’s clever, which he is, he is very sharp, they way he’ll go to Ferrari and to take on Charles Leclerc is to think I’m never gonna outqualify Leclerc", says Windsor. "Focus on the race, focus on what I’ve been doing over the last twelve months, which is to drive well over a consistent distance with a rhythm that works given all the variables that come into play and he’ll be good at that because as I say he’s not stupid at all. And that’s how he will go into Ferrari."

Ricciardo

Then Windsor turns his arrows to the big news of Daniel Ricciardo, who announced that he will ride for McLaren from 2021. “I’m sure deep down he was hoping he might have an opportunity at Ferrari, but as I’ve been saying for a long time, there is no way in the world Charles Leclerc was ever gonna say: ‘Yeah, I’m happy to have Daniel in the other car’. Because Daniel is going to cramp his style in a way that, or would have cramped his style in a way that Carlos Sainz won’t."

“For me Daniel made a fundamental error to leave Red Bull when he did because he still was able to beat Max [Verstappen] with a couple of areas of his driving. Particularly his race craft and he didn’t allow that to happen and he just went away. Lando Norris, Daniel and McLaren have a lot to prove, but that'll happen very organically”, Windsor ends.