The pointed note that starts Ferrari's Leclerc vs Sainz era

It was intriguing to watch Antonio Felix da Costa and Jean-Eric Vergne collide during the second Formula E race in Riyadh last weekend and wonder how their DS Techeetah team had not solved its team-mate racing tensions.

Rewind 12 months and the sparks of a flashpoint were already flying after Vergne had aggressively edged his team-mate towards a wall in Santiago before a team orders flare up occurred in Mexico City. DST went on to secure a second title double come the end of that marvellous run of Berlin races, with da Costa extending its run of drivers' titles to three, and all was well. Until, again, it wasn't last weekend.

The day before the black-and-gold team-mates were needlessly flirting with disaster, the Formula 1 team most recently grappling with open intra-team war was sending a clear message on this topic.

"There is not a single individual that counts more than the team itself," said Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto, flanked by Charles Leclerc and new signing Carlos Sainz Jr at its 2021 team launch.

In the past two F1 seasons, after the Netflix-immortalised clashes between Haas drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen, the Scuderia has chalked up the most significant F1 team-mate rancour. After Leclerc's rise through the ranks as a Ferrari junior was capped by his promotion to be Sebastian Vettel's team-mate, their on-track relationship rapidly combusted.

Leclerc took a while to be a regular frontrunner during 2019, but he quickly landed an early blow in his fight with Vettel in Bahrain, when he defied team orders to retake the lead he would later cruelly lose to an engine cylinder failure. By the time Leclerc was soaking up the Tifosi's adoration on top of Monza's famous podium - and how quickly F1 yearns for such joyous, crowd filled scenes to become the norm once again - he'd landed another blow by not giving Vettel a tow during the farcical final runs in qualifying. All was forgiven by his victory, but then there were further team order controversies in Singapore and Russia, before it all blew up spectacularly at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

For all the pain of those moments, there was a clear winner - Leclerc rewarded with a lengthy new contract, with Vettel then informed his Ferrari time was ending before the 2020 season had even started.

Even after a clear victory in the team-mate hostilities there was to be another collision, as Leclerc wiped out Vettel at the start of the Styrian race - although this embarrassing gaffe was more to do with Ferrari's new star gambling to gain places early on rather than trying to make another point about team status.

Vettel is now preparing for a new start at Aston Martin, with Sainz taking his place. The Spaniard is living a dream of many F1 racers - pulling on the famous red race suit and climbing aboard Ferrari cars.

Sainz's story is one worth paying attention too. His famous surname creates a "shadow" he says "I will never be out of" - but that's simply a reflection of his admiration for his double World Rally champion father.

He's highly rated, with a reputation for relentless racing often cited as one of his hero Fernando Alonso's best traits. Yet Sainz has twice come close to falling off the F1 carousal - arguably through little fault of his own, as Red Bull's young driver stable became too saturated and Renault discarded him in favour of Daniel Ricciardo, now his replacement at McLaren.

"We were aware that he was a very good driver, a strong racer, very consistent in the race. So, looking again at the constructors' championship, we thought he would be a great team-mate for Charles" Mattia Binotto

Sainz's recent qualifying results against F1 team-mates suggest he may struggle to match Leclerc on pure speed (his 8-8 draw against Lando Norris was his best result since beating Daniil Kvyat 8-6 in 2017, before heading to Renault and ending that season on a 3-1 defeat to Nico Hulkenberg).

But Sainz's progress at McLaren was clear to see - his generally calm head impressing the team, and Ferrari watching from the sidelines. His determination was clear at Monza last year as he chased Pierre Gasly hard in the closing stages, overcoming the disappointment of a safety car pitstop costing him the chance to be best-of-the rest (a position he'd surely have taken comfortably given his sensational speed in qualifying and the race's early stages, before interruptions later in the race boosted others, including Gasly, past him) when Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes gave the race away.

"Obviously before [we signed the deal for 2021], we made a lot of analysis," Binotto explained of Ferrari's decision to hire Sainz. "We looked at the past seasons, we looked at the way he was progressing, not only at his latest seasons but generally speaking since he started in F1.

"We were aware that he was a very good driver, a strong racer, very consistent in the race. So, looking again at the constructors' championship, we thought he would be a great team-mate for Charles.

"I think that if you look then at the last year, 2020, by the end of the season, everybody congratulated us for the choice [to sign Sainz]. But we're very happy for the choice. I think that Carlos through the season in 2020 again proved that he is the right driver for Ferrari and being the team-mate of Charles."

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Sainz has a hard task to get on Leclerc's level in 2021 given the reduced testing and design carryover requirements meaning his new team-mate has a wealth of 2020 experience to draw upon. But this season is surely set to be one of rebuilding for Ferrari.

"In the end, there is always a balance to find between wanting to be competitive with your reference as a team-mate, but at the same time, especially the moment that we're going through right now in Ferrari, one thing that is paramount important is the team," Sainz said last week.

"We're both going to push flat out to make sure we can help this team to move forward. I think we've already started on the right foot, we're getting on well and we're having a good relationship. We'll spend a lot of time here in Maranello together - [already in] January and February. So yeah, [I'm] encouraged about the relationship, the way we can move forward, and how hard we can help the team together.

"Personally I've never had any issues with team-mates, so I don't know why I should have one with Charles."

The real pressure, for both Sainz and Ferrari's management, will come if or when it gets back to fighting at the front of the grid. There are early signs that Ferrari won't repeat its 2020 disaster in 2021, but 2022 remains the most likely early chance for it to return to title-challenging status.

In recent years, only Mercedes has really proved it can handle two drivers battling at the front, and even that comes with the caveat that outside opposition hasn't regularly been a substantial threat. So, Ferrari is wise to sow seeds of peace as early as possible.

Alongside this, Sainz now has his own unique challenge - to establish a home in what is clearly Leclerc's team, while writing his own legend.