Leclerc Discusses Whether He Will Race Sainz Differently This Season

Tuesday, 19 March 2024 at 21:15

Charles Leclerc answered a question about his approach to racing his teammate Carlos Sainz, who will be departing Ferrari at the end of this season.

When Lewis Hamilton's contract with Ferrari was announced ahead of this season, it was questioned whether Carlos Sainz would want to play the team game at Ferrari.

The Spanish driver later clarified that he had always been a team player and that his priorities hadn't changed at all. When Charles Leclerc was recently asked whether he will be racing his teammate differently this season, he responded:

"No, I think we are always trying to fight on the limit. Obviously, keeping in mind that Ferrari comes first, and we cannot take unnecessary risks."

"Again, on my side, I wasn't really in a position to be fighting properly [in Bahrain] as we had quite a bit of issues to manage."

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In Bahrain, Leclerc was overtaken by his teammate twice in one race. He struggled with reliability issues but gained time on his teammate with an undercut after he was overtaken for the first time.

That meant that Sainz had to overtake Leclerc again. Millimeters separated their two cars when the two drove side by side.

Ferrari Pitwall surely didn't feel comfortable watching the intense battle between their drivers, but Sainz later said it didn't feel like he would be too close to his teammate. Leclerc continued:

"But yeah, at the end, it's a balance and sometimes we might go a bit more over the limit and be a bit too aggressive and then we'll have a discussion and we'll recentre that, and that's what we've done in the years we have been competing together, but I don't remember any time where it went as far as having a problem between us."

The two Ferrari drivers have had multiple very intense battles but always kept it clean and never collided during their three seasons driving together for Scuderia. Leclerc added

"So that is a good thing and it should stay that way, but I have no doubts on that. We have also a very good relationship outside the car, so we are very open and very honest with ourselves, so we have this discussion very often. It's all about finding the right balance, but I think we did."