Carlos Sainz Shares His Side Of Story After Leclerc's Outrage On Team Radio

Monday, 25 November 2024 at 13:00

Scuderia Ferrari F1 driver Carlos Sainz shared his perspective on the drama with teammate Charles Leclerc that unfolded after the race.

Carlos Sainz scored a podium for Ferrari at the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix. After starting from P2, the Spaniard finished third, losing one position to Lewis Hamilton, who was on a charge (from P10).

It seemed like a great weekend overall for the team from Maranello as both of their drivers maximized the performance they had in the car, finishing P3 and P4 - ahead of McLaren, their Constructors' Championship rival.

However, as Charles Leclerc's angry radio messages went viral after the Grand Prix, it also became clear that all was not well with the Italian team.

The Monegasque driver asserted that being nice "always f***s" him, suggested that his teammate didn't respect agreements they made and that he will also drive only for himself from now on.

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After the second round of pitstops, Leclerc came out on track just ahead of Sainz and was told by his engineer that Sainz received an order not to overtake him.

The order that Sainz received was to "not put pressure" on the 27-year-old. Nevertheless, he overtook Leclerc right on the next straight between turns two and three.

Charles Leclerc probably felt that he could have finished on the podium if his teammate respected team orders like he always does.

The Spaniard, on the other hand, also had his point of view, which was that he would have been ahead of Leclerc after that pit stop if his team listened to his demands and was prepared for a pit stop when they called him in. He said during the official press conference after the Grand Prix:

"Yeah, I think he [Leclerc] grained the Medium tires, and I managed to get ahead before the pit stop on Mediums."

"Then I did grain my Hards, and he was coming quick behind me and me anticipating what was going to be a situation, because Lewis was straight behind Charles at the time, and I was pretty sure the team was going to ask me to let Charles by because he was quicker at the time."

"As I was on grained tires, I asked the team two or three times to box me, to get me out of the way, and get me a new set of Hards to make sure that I wasn't losing a lot of race time by having to let Charles by and then having to fight Lewis at the same time."

"For some reason, we didn't box, and I ended up having to let Charles by a lap later than was planned and losing a lot of race time."

"And by the time I was going to box, then we didn't even box. So I guess he's not happy, but I'm also not happy with the way things were handled at the time."