Sainz signed as Ferrari's number two driver - Flavio Briatore

Carlos Sainz has obviously been selected to be Ferrari's number 2 driver, according to Flavio Briatore.

Having presided as Benetton and Renault team boss over four separate titles with Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso, Briatore always ran a policy of pairing a "very special" driver with a competent teammate.

"The situation seems clear to me," the Italian tells La Gazzetta dello Sport.  "Ferrari is fully committed to Charles Leclerc."

Briatore agrees that Leclerc, like Schumacher and Alonso, is a stand-out driver.

"Charles has also made it clear that he is a very special racing driver," he said.

"For me, the winning recipe is always to have a driver for the title and a driver who scores a lot of points and takes them away from the opponents.

"Sebastian Vettel simply had to pay when such a fast man joined Ferrari," Briatore claimed.

"Just as Lewis Hamilton did at McLaren, Leclerc surprised the team.  But if you have two equal drivers in a racing team, then all you do is take mutually important points from one another."

As for Carlos Sainz's appointment for 2021, Briatore said: "He is a good driver who had a very nice season in 2019, especially if you think about which car he was driving."