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Ferrari teammates “ready to move on” from Vegas tension

By Reese Mautone

What happened in Vegas will certainly stay in Vegas according to Charles Leclerc, with the Ferrari driver admitting his heated radio message aimed at Carlos Sainz has been addressed ahead of their final two races as teammates. 

Fuelled by high emotions on the strip, a messy evening for Ferrari both on the pit wall and on track led to Charles Leclerc reaching his breaking point after the chequered flag.

The Monegasque ended the race in P4, issuing his team an explicit post-race message as he felt hard done by when his teammate overtook him after his pitstop despite being informed Sainz would not overtake him out of the pitlane.

The information from the team was a mistake, however, with Leclerc’s race engineer Bryan Bozzi correcting himself to say Sainz was told to “not put you under pressure” seconds later:

“Carlos has been told to not overtake but it is really close, you might be just in front,” Bozzi said over the team radio.

“He has been told to not put you under pressure. So just take care of your tyres.”

20 laps later, the anger of losing a position to his teammate hadn’t subsided and the #16 unleashed on the Ferrari radio waves.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Leclerc shouted.

“Yeah, I did my job, but being nice f***s me over all the f***ing time. All the f***ing time.

“It’s not even being nice, it’s just being respectful. I know I need to shut up but at one point it’s always the same.

“So, oh my f***ing God.”

That message was followed by another outburst, however, this time, it was accidentally heard by his team as Leclerc didn’t realise his radio was still on after being asked to “pick up”.

“Yeah, yeah. F***ing pick up what the f*** we want,” he said, before later apologising.

From Sainz’s point of view, the Spaniard said he didn’t put pressure on his teammate, instead overtaking the slower Ferrari as it exited the pitlane on cold tyres because slowing down would have impacted his own tyre warm-up process, especially after the chaos of his second stop. 

Arriving at the Lusail International Circuit for this weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix, tempers have settled between the two teammates, with Leclerc and Sainz united in their mission to end their four-year partnership on a high.

“I don’t want to go back to what happened in Vegas,” Leclerc said. 

“Yeah, I mean, last two races of the season and we need to do absolutely everything in order to get that Constructors’ Championship. That’s all that matters. 

“And whatever happened in Vegas, we discussed about it and we are all good, which is the most important thing. 

“I had no doubts about that because we’ve always had a really good relationship with Carlos and we’ve had races where sometimes things don’t go exactly the way we want, but the most important thing is that we discuss about it and we go forward. 

“It’s very clear for both of us that we just want to win the Constructors’ and it’s by working as a team that we’ll achieve that. 

“And I’m sure that there won’t be any problems with it.”

On his teammate’s impending departure, the 27-year-old added: I”‘ve said it many times. On one hand, it’s not like I’m going to miss him like crazy because he will still be in the paddock, maybe 20 metres away.

“So as I’ve said it for Fréd, Carlos isn’t my girlfriend either. And so I really like Carlos, but I’m sure we’ll spend still a lot of time together.

“And as I was saying earlier, we have a really good relationship that will stay there even after our relationship within Ferrari.

“Yeah, we won’t be working any more together, but we’ll still spend time together.

But he is a good person and we get along very, very well. And yeah, that, as I said earlier, helps us to work together very well.”

So, when asked to clarify if the two teammates had cleared the air, Leclerc responded: “Exactly.”

His teammate echoed Leclerc’s remarks, leaving the late-night tension in the past while looking to end his time at Ferrari with a constructors’ championship victory. 

“We’ve definitely talked about it and come to conclusions by talking about things, and we’re definitely ready to move on from that race weekend,” Sainz said.

“That definitely wasn’t a very good race day for both of us and we’re just looking forward to win the championship.

“To fight for this constructors’ title the best way we can by working together like we’ve been working together for four years, and trying to put together the best possible end to the season.”

Ferrari sits just 24 points behind McLaren heading into the final two races of the season, making a constructors’ championship victory a real possibility come the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi.

Image: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images

2024 Qatar Grand Prix Schedule:

Saturday, November 30:

FP1: 00:30 – 01:30

Sprint Qualifying: 04:30 – 05:14

Sunday, December 1:

Sprint Race: 01:00 – 02:00

Qualifying: 05:00 – 06:00

Monday, December 2:

Race: 03:00

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