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Charles Leclerc feels Carlos Sainz disobeyed a pre-race order during the Spanish Grand Prix, a suggestion that prompted his Ferrari F1 team-mate Sainz to say “very often after the race he complains about something”.
The two enjoyed a reasonably harmonious relationship during their four seasons as Ferrari teammates, but things were arguably more tense than ever in the aftermath of the Barcelona race.
Leclerc and Sainz maintained fifth and sixth positions at the start of the Grand Prix, but Sainz quickly set his sights on Leclerc and ended up attacking his SF-24 around the outside of Leclerc’s car at turn one.
Sainz advanced slowly but was forced to go through a runoff and negotiate mandatory re-entry hurdles. This earned him fifth place and a short message from the race control “indicating” that the incident was quickly reduced to “no further investigation”.
This immediately angered Leclerc on the team radio, and his anger at Sainz did not subside when he faced the media.
“We had a clear strategy at the beginning of the race, with the team, to save the tires for the attack later,” explained Leclerc, who eventually finished fifth.
“Carlos on that lap, he didn’t make any saves in Turn 14 and of course he had the opportunity to overtake in Turn 1. That’s a bit unfortunate because we lost time between us, I damaged my front wing because of Carlos. When I made the turn, and not seeing that I was on the inside This made our race more difficult.
“But that wouldn’t have significantly changed the final outcome.”
When asked if he expected Sainz to leave more room, Leclerc said: “Yes, but again I didn’t understand the point of doing that when it was clearly announced before the race that we had to save in this part of the race.”
“It’s a bit unnecessary, but I also understand it’s a home run and it’s an important moment in his career, so I think he wanted to do something a bit spectacular.
“But maybe I wasn’t the right person to do it.”
This ‘big moment’ indicates that this is a crucial time for Sainz’s future after 2025 when he will be replaced at Ferrari by Lewis Hamilton.
“I think he will,” Leclerc told Sky Sports F1 [Sainz] “See the picture and understand that I was inside and he could not turn himself in at that stage.”
But when Sky brought that up to Sainz, he wasn’t impressed.
“He complained a lot after the race about something,” said Sainz, who completed a longer final stint on hard surfaces and finished sixth.
“I was in the attack. We were on a new soft tire, and Mercedes was on a used soft tire. We had to continue attacking in the first laps when we have a new tire and pass it. As we said even before the race.
“I passed Charles because… I don’t know if he made a mistake or if he was just running things too much. Then I kept going and I almost passed Lewis, I passed Lewis, I almost passed Russell at the pit stops.
“I was trying to experience what I had to do as a driver, what I was required to do as a driver. He had to deal with it more, and in the end it paid off for him because he beat me in the end with a swipe.” -Medium-soft [tyre strategy].
“I chose to be aggressive, soft to medium hard, and it didn’t pay off. That’s what it is.”
Leclerc’s frustration was also conveyed to Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur, who disputed that the Leclerc-Sainz duel was too costly, and urged caution when reading too much of drivers’ immediate comments.
“I think you can find 10 examples of 10 circumstances in the race in which we wasted half a second,” Vasseur said.
“After that, Carlos let him go [Sainz obeyed a team order to let Leclerc past into a net fifth place] Very easily later. We missed a few tenths within two or three laps. Let’s discuss, and [let’s] “Failure to draw conclusions after the driver’s first comments when he jumped out of the car.”
It’s hard not to draw conclusions when Leclerc and Sainz’s comments highlight their many years of civil battle for podiums and the occasional victory – think how calm Leclerc reacted to Sainz’s forceful and brutal defense of third place at Monza last year.
Sainz wouldn’t point out the other times Leclerc complained after the race if there wasn’t at least an element of lingering frustration there.
The fact that the team has let go of Sainz despite two of his last three wins, the looming self-imposed tough time deciding his future, and Ferrari’s decline in form over the past two weekends will only add insult to injury. Frustration.
Sainz’s frustration with Hamilton’s move
The clash with his teammate was not the only accident Sainz suffered during his run to sixth place.
Sainz said Hamilton “jumped me off the track” when Mercedes reversed Sainz’s previous win at turn one.
“I was half a car ahead and usually the rule says that if you’re ahead on the outside, they have to give you space if you have a half car in front of you,” Sainz explained.
“That’s how the hosts usually rule this year, so I was trying to take advantage of that rule because that’s how they’ve been ruling so far.
“I’m not saying he was racing hard or not racing hard, he was just trying to apply the rule that the stewards have applied all season.”
As with the Leclerc/Sainz incident, stewards quickly decided not to take any further action.
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