“Whatever comes out of your…”
Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc have fought very evenly over their years at Ferrari, but with some differences due to their competitiveness. And in Las Vegas, where Sainz had just two races left at Ferrari before switching to Williams due to Hamilton’s arrival, Charles Leclerc exploded against the Spaniard, finishing behind the Madrid native, who was third against Charles, who was fourth in Las Vegas.
The Monegasque driver overtook Carlos Sainz at the start due to the Spaniard’s mistake in the first turn. Carlos did not put pressure on Charles and decided to work on the tires. Leclerc lost some of his momentum trying to burn through bullets and attack Russell with everything in the early stages. which had a lot more rhythm. This damaged Leclerc’s wheels too early and Sainz overtook him.
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In the end, Sainz surpassed Leclerc, stopping before Charles.
Chronology of what happened
After the first stop, Sainz maintained his position with Leclerc in the pits, and on lap 27, under pressure from Hamilton on Charles, Carlos was ordered by radio to give way to Leclerc. Sainz took notice and gave third place to Charles on that lap, while Carlos asked to be stopped in the pits. At this point, Hamilton attempted to “undercut”, and on the next lap Ferrari had already confirmed to Carlos that he should enter the pits, but at the last moment the Spaniard was told not to enter. Because? The mechanics were not prepared! Sainz couldn’t believe it: “Wake up, guys. Let’s!” he exclaimed.
Finally, Sainz entered the back corner ahead of Leclerc. And when Charles stopped, the Spaniard showed better speed and warmer tires. He found Leclerc ahead. Charles was informed by radio that Carlos had been ordered not to overtake his partner. “We told Carlos not to put pressure on you. So focus on taking care of your tires.” But Carlos arrived and easily overtook Leclerc due to the huge difference in speed between them at that moment. That is, Carlos, having stopped earlier, cut off Charles.
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Leclerc’s irony: “Try telling him in Spanish”
The Monegasque did not like this at all, he forgot that he had put himself in such a situation by burning his wheels during the first attack. Therefore, seeing that Carlos had surpassed him, he was quick to answer ironically: “Try telling him in Spanish.”
But the matter did not end there. Sainz overtook Verstappen, and Charles could no longer surpass the native of Madrid. I no longer had rhythm and it was clear on the track. But Leclerc decided to explode in rage at the end of the race.
Charles Leclerc’s radio as Sainz passed him after his second stop in Las Vegas
Leclerc’s controversial radios
“Yes, I did my job, but politeness constantly annoys me. It’s not even politeness, it’s just respect. I know I need to shut up, but at some point it’s always the same.”– he said to the engineer, who asked him to shut up. “Anyway, you did the right thing for the team,” his traveling engineer later responded, knowing that Ferrari was competing in the World Constructors’ Championship.
And he had a mistake. He thought his radio was off and then made a comment that quickly went viral on social media after his engineer told him to pick up the phone. “Take what the hell you want,” he said in English in a phrase that can be translated as follows: “Collect everything that comes out of your eggs”. That’s when he realized his comment had been heard on the radio. “The radio is on, sorry.”
“We argued. We asked them to change their position at the stop and there was some confusion. We will discuss this internally,” Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur said on DAZN.
Leclerc’s explanation
“Yes, I left the radio open. I was very upset and may have been too aggressive with this radio. But hey, emotions run high and we’ll talk about it internally. I did my part today, but that’s what it is” Leclerc said on DAZN after the race. “It doesn’t matter if it’s 3rd or 4th place… it’s the same thing for the team, but it’s a little disappointing if we lost the Constructors’ Championship by a few points. Oh well”– commented the Monegasque. Although the truth is that his fight with Sainz did not affect the team’s final result, because Leclerc never had a chance to win the game against Mercedes.
Sainz’s version
“It’s great to see you compete with Charles, I like to see them let you fight and it’s for real,” Jenson Button told Carlos Sainz before the Spaniard took the podium.
“Yes, we have been behaving like this for four years now. Charles and I go wheel after wheel, not every race, but every two or three races. We are very competitive, we are close in pace and we are always fighting with everyone while we are fighting with McLarens, Red Bull and Mercedes. It may be better than 3rd and 4th place, but we will continue to push,” said the Madrid native, not knowing the radio stations his teammate was filming.
Immediately afterward, he went on television to talk about the “poor execution” of the race and the confusion with his stop.
“I did well in the first half and was able to get past Leclerc, but we were both way behind. In the second stint, with the hard tyres, he controlled the steering better than me, and when I saw that Charles was going to do it, I asked the team to put me in the pits so as not to drive me off the road. As a result, I didn’t get into the pits, on the circle that I was going to sit in, they didn’t let me in… we got into trouble between all of us and there was none. He ran a good race. We need to learn from this, but ultimately I don’t think anything would have changed much between third and fourth place,” he said on DAZN, without addressing Charles.