Tensions in red
The Las Vegas race was far from peaceful for Ferrari, despite the 12 points gained by the Maranello team over McLaren in the Constructors’ standings. All attention was focused on the relationship between Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, which seems to have reached a breaking point following the Monegasque’s furious team radio right after the checkered flag.
In the heat of the moment, Carlos Sainz chose not to comment on the incident during the post-race interviews. However, in the press conference, he agreed to delve at least partially into the matter in front of the journalists. The Spaniard, who has spent the entire season as an “outsider” since the announcement in February of Lewis Hamilton’s signing to replace him, shared his version of events concerning what happened before the second pit stop when the team asked him to let Charles Leclerc pass.
On that occasion, the Madrid native did indeed follow the team’s orders. However, this was not the case after Charles Leclerc’s second pit stop when he was instructed not to put pressure on his teammate. Instead, arriving on already-warmed tires, he seized the opportunity to reclaim the position on track and, consequently, the final podium spot.
Carlos Sainz’s analysis
“At the beginning, he had graining on the medium tires, and I managed to get ahead of him before the pit stop. Then I had graining on the hard tires, and he was catching up to me quickly. At that point, I tried to anticipate what was going to be an uncomfortable situation,” Carlos Sainz explained to journalists, “because Lewis was right behind Charles at that stage, and I was quite sure the team would ask me to let Charles pass because he was faster.” – the future Williams driver explained at the end of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
“Since I had graining, I asked the team two or three times to let me pit,” continued Ferrari’s #55 in his analysis, “so I could get out of the way and make sure I didn’t waste time letting Charles through and fighting with Lewis at the same time. For some reason, we didn’t pit, and I ended up letting Charles pass a lap later than expected, losing a lot of time. Then, when I was about to pit, we didn’t stop after all.” – he pointed out.
“I can imagine he’s not happy,” concluded Carlos Sainz, taking a jab at his teammate, “but I’m not happy either with how things were managed at that moment. And I believe no one in the team is happy because we all expected something more. I’m on the podium, so at least I achieved that for the team. But at the same time, I don’t think we could have achieved a better result than third and fourth place.” – the Ferrari driver concluded.
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