On the day when Mercedes returned to success after a year of absence and George Russell finally took his first career Formula 1 victory, the tensions within the other two top teams of the sport hit the headlines above all: Red Bull and Ferrari.
Max Verstappen pulled out old grudges of the past to justify the choice not to give his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez sixth position back, which would have helped the Mexican in the battle for the second place in the drivers’ standings, a position currently shared on an equal footing in terms of points with Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, ahead of the last round of the 2022 Formula 1 season, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc himself, on the other hand, asked his team to allow him to move up to third place ahead of Carlos Sainz, with the same goal of gaining important points in the duel for P2 in the Drivers’ standings. Again the answer was negative. The tensions then continued after the race, which shows how – for very different reasons – inside the two teams there was a sense of unease in this final part of the season. It is therefore inevitable that most of the Italian newspapers have also focused on the analysis of these two internal ‘feuds’.
“[…] Charles Leclerc is angry with the team for not having ordered Carlos Sainz […] to leave him on the podium […], a clear sign of Ferrari’s diminished ambitions: from the throne of P1 to the place of honor P3. And there is even high tension in Red Bull, with the Dutchman who stole sixth place from Sergio Perez […], scolded by the team, insulted by his teammate […], with an angry reply […] “.
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“[…] Asking Ferrari for the third place earned by Carlos Sainz furiously “disqualifies” him from the race” – wrote Italian journalist Giorgio Terruzzi for Corriere della Sera regarding Charles Leclerc’s behavior in the Brazilian Grand Prix – “at least. These are requests that arise out of frustration, okay, but they do not belong to the behavior of a champion like Charles. Max Verstappen, when Lewis Hamilton is next to him, loses his clear thinking. As if that weren’t enough, denying the (sixth) position to Sergio Perez, who is fighting for second driver place with Charles Leclerc, signals an excess of arrogance that puts a grey mark on on his golden helmet.” – Corriere della Sera feels.
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