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Originally Posted by Jiren
Yeah when one driver was already far ahead in wdc and facing a formidable challenge from a rival team. Not when they werent even a third of the season through and separated by less than one race victory worth of points
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That's not how they reason in the money-driven F1 business anno 2022. It's about the reality of winning titles. The 'equal opportunities for both drivers' approach is definitely honorable, but that only works if all competitive teams adopt that very approach. Otherwise, chances to win titles will be compromised by other teams who radically adopt a 'leader + sherpa' strategy, concentrating points in one basket: the one of the designated 'leader'.
Seriously, imagine for a moment that you're the team boss or leading driver at Mercedes, Red Bull or Ferrari: more than ever since the highly controversial 2021 F1 season with toxic atmosphere, you want by all means to avoid the championship to be decided yet again in the last race. As repeatedly proved in the past: every point matters. So better start collecting as many points as possible since race 1 in order to achieve the goal to get mathematically out of reach of rivals prior to the last race. Once the title is in the bag, the 'sherpa' will be granted to win too.
Sherpa for Red Bull: Perez - he knows that very well;
Sherpa for Mercedes: initially Russell, but based on results that's very likely shifting towards Hamilton now;
Sherpa for Ferrari: initially there was none (at least that's what Ferrari officially used to say), but based on results and given the fact that Red Bull sacrifices Perez to get Verstappen maximum points, the sherpa role is shifting towards Sainz.