The atmosphere inside Ferrari isn’t as relaxed as it used to be, since after the Spanish GP, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz argued about their contact during the race.
In the early stages of the Grand Prix, the two Ferrari drivers were close to each other and when Sainz tried to overtake his teammate in turn 1, they made contact. Leclerc also seemed to have slightly damaged his front wing, potentially compromising the balance of the car.
Right after the race, Leclerc pointed out that making that move at that point was unnecessary, as it made both their races more difficult.
“We had a clear strategy at the beginning of the race with both to save tires to attack later on,” Leclerc explained.
“Carlos didn’t do any saving in Turn 14 and of course had an opportunity to overtake me in Turn 1, which is a bit of a shame because we lost time between us.
“I damaged my front wing because of Carlos making the turn and not seeing I was inside, and that made our race more difficult.
“I didn’t understand the point of doing that when it was clearly stated before the race that we had to save in this part of the race.”
Leclerc also added that maybe Sainz wanted to impress his own crowd since it was his home race, but that doesn’t justify his move.
“It’s a bit unnecessary, but I also understand that it’s his home race, and it’s also an important moment of his career, so I guess he wanted to do something a bit spectacular. But I probably wasn’t the right person to do that with.”
If Leclerc said that the plan was to save the tires as much as possible, Sainz had a different strategy on his mind. The Spaniard wanted to exploit the new softs to attack the two Mercedes that both had used tires.
Not only that, he also criticized the fact that Leclerc complains about something too many times after the races.
“I think too many times he [Leclerc] complains after a race about something,” Sainz said.
“I was on the attack, we were on the new Soft, and Mercedes was on a used Soft. We had to go on the attack in the first laps that we had a new tire and try to pass them, we said [it] even before the race.
“I passed Charles, I don’t know if he made a mistake or was just managing a bit too much.”
In the end, there was one thing on which both Ferrari drivers agreed, which was that the Scuderia didn’t have enough pace to fight for a podium finish. That was pointed out by Sainz, who also talked about his more aggressive strategy that didn’t work out.
“[There was] no way to fight for that podium, but clearly the call of stopping early and going to the undercut route and anyway a medium-hard today didn’t pay off,” Sainz explained.
“These tires were just too slow today, and everyone else that went on the soft, medium, soft, were clearly faster. It just didn’t pay off.
“In the race, I think I mirrored a bit what Russell did, and I was a tenth or two slower. Charles mirrored what Hamilton did and was one or two-tenths slower.
“And then, obviously, Red Bull and McLaren are a clear step ahead. So yeah, not our best weekend.”