It was a very tense weekend at Ferrari. Charles Leclerc left Las Vegas very angry with Carlos Sainz. Several radio stations demonstrated this after the race. And the boss of the Italian brand, Fred Vasseurdownplayed what happened, although he made it clear they would discuss it internally.
“It’s always the same story, whether they should comment or not. They comment, and they don’t always see the whole picture. We’ll talk about it and it won’t be a problem“, declares the French leader.
“We must avoid fightingbut I think that at the start of the round you have to think about management, and Carlos Sainz was already on the third or fourth lap,” explains Vasseur.
He acknowledges that it hasn’t been easy to deal with: “I think it’s more the fact that the situation was very difficult for everyone, but we’re going to talk about it tonight. “It won’t be a problem.”
“When we were talking to Carlos about the pit stop, I explained to him that he would be behind Lawson and Tsunoda maybe, and he wanted to come into the pits, but we wanted to keep him on the track. We were talking about it and it was a bit chaotic, but when they are in the car they have their own vision of the race,” explains the Ferrari boss.
Carlos took the podium and Leclerc finished fourth. The Spaniard had no problem overtaking his teammate on the track. And the Monegasque, on open radio, left a very clear message of protest: “Yeah, I did my job, but being nice screws me up all the time. It’s not even being nice, it’s just being respectful. I know I have to shut up, but at some point it’s always the same thing.”