Tension at Ferrari: Leclerc angry with Sainz and insulting him in public

“Batch of m… No preparation lap. No rain. Thanks to Carlos for the slipstream. I was quite fast there. Always nice”, exclamation charles leclerc on the radio to his team. The Monegasque finished 7th in the qualifying session of Australian GP of F1 2023, while Carlos Sainz, faster and more consistent than Charles since free practice in Melbourne, overtook him in the 5th starting position. Something was bothering him about Sainz and, far from waiting to discuss it privately with the team, he made sure everyone knew it. He said it on the team radio, but a few minutes later, he repeated it again, this time with an irony that the Spaniard must not have liked in the statements on ‘Canal + France’.

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“It was a difficult qualy, I knew I had to do everything right in the last round of Q3. Unfortunately, we were waiting for rain, so we didn’t do a lap of preparation (he went straight to his first lap of rubber , without heating them first, unlike Carlos), which made it more complicated,” he said. And then came the irony, with a preceding smile: “Carlos gave me a slipstream in turns 3-4, it always helps”, He commented with an obvious ‘dart’ towards his partner, indicating that he was annoyed.

What happened was simple. At Ferrari there was talk of the possibility of a slipstream, but that option was discarded because of the risk. to do so between the walls of Albert Park and with track traffic. To this, we must add Charles’ bad choice before what happened. Sainz was right about the approach in taking the warm-up lap before attacking in his last attempt, while Leclerc decided to take a nap without making any preparations in case it rained. During this attempt Carlos was found. “I don’t have fuel (for another try), we are afraid of the rain, so we decided to go out and push. But we lack something up front”, acknowledged Charles.

Charles insults her in front of all the cameras

As if that wasn’t enough, Charles couldn’t stop himself in the media corral either, with many cameras and journalists who witnessed his discomfort, complaining in front of everyone what happened to a Spaniard who was surprised before the Monegasque position. In these pictures it is clearly seen how Carlos made a surprised gesture and tried to explain himself, who was surprised again by Charles’ answer, and finally ended the conversation without wanting to answer any more.

Written newspaper explanations: “A misunderstanding”

Later, before the written newspaper, Charles lowered his tone, speaking of “a possible misunderstanding.” and, finally, he also mentioned ‘mea culpa’ because he did not perform at the expected level in qualifying.

“In Q1 and Q2, obviously, I didn’t drive well. I didn’t put everything together so it’s my fault. In Q3, I succeeded a little bit. In the car I’m sure I can put everything together. Unfortunately, I don’t know what happened in the second run of Q3, if it was a miscommunication with Carlos or something else, but I found myself behind him throughout the first sector, which was not very good. Leclerc improved that sector, although it is not known if he still has room to improve without Carlos at the front.

“We will speak in the ‘briefing’ about this to try to improve these situations”, added a Leclerc who had already complained of being behind Carlos Sainz in the Jeddah race, without being able to overtake him because the two had the same rhythm. “Being behind like this, it’s really a m…”, he said on Sunday mid-race, perhaps waiting for Ferrari to ask Sainz to pass him.

The ‘mea culpa’, later

Later, he admitted it was his fault for not setting a good time early, in his first attempt at Q3. “It’s a bit difficult, but to be honest I feel we are quite competitive. But I just didn’t put everything together on the first run of the Q3. So, it’s a little bit my fault, because when you get to Q3 you have to put everything together in the lap you do.” That’s where he threw in self-criticism.

“We could have optimized it by having better communication. But I didn’t do a good job today either.”he clarified. “I’m not happy with the way I’m driving.

Sainz, hit by the wall, flawlessly

The mess between Sainz and Leclerc wasn’t the only thing Ferrari’s wall got wrong in qualifying. They also warned him that he had to pass some cars in his preparation, where he had to warm up the tires, but that caused his tires to be too cold and therefore he lost several keys in tenth in the first corner which may have allowed him to fight for a good front line. Not all the cars he dropped came on the lap, so Ferrari needs to improve on that aspect.

However, Carlos Sainz did not break his wall for anything. He drove fast, faster and more comfortable than Leclerc all weekend, and set the times he had to do until the last lap of Q3 where he was 5th, ahead of a Charles who showed clear sign of failure.