Carlos Sainz has cleared the air with Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc before the Qatar Grand Prix. Leclerc was furious with Sainz after the events of Las Vegas.
Sainz received team orders on two occasions during the race and Leclerc felt he didn’t comply with either instruction. First, he was asked to let his teammate through, but he wanted Ferrari to prepare fresh tyres before he did so.
To add to the sense of injustice, the Monegasque had ceded position to car 55 in the early stages. This was after he wrecked his tyres in pursuit of leader George Russell.
Later, Riccardo Adami told Sainz not to put Leclerc under pressure when he emerged from his second pit stop. But the Spaniard, who had already warmed up his tyres, immediately overtook.
In Leclerc’s remarkable radio outburst after the chequered flag, he said he was fed up of being the ‘nice guy’. It may have been an ill-tempered debrief, but the two drivers are on good terms again before the race in Lusail.
It will be Sainz’s penultimate outing with the Italian team. He’s due to join Williams for 2025, with Lewis Hamilton replacing him.
Ted Kravitz called Carlos Sainz ‘the bad boy of Ferrari’ before receiving ‘funny look’
Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz interviewed Sainz in the media pen on Thursday, and jokingly called him ‘the bad boy of Ferrari’. Unclear on what Kravitz was referring to, Sainz responded with a ‘funny look’.
Given that the Netflix cameras ‘film everything’, he’s concerned that the exchange will feature on the next season of Drive to Survive. As a result, he feels ‘slightly guilty’.
The documentary’s producers will likely relish the Ferrari discord storyline. Across the first six seasons, they have been on the lookout for any and all drama in the paddock.
“I made a joke to Carlos Sainz that he was the bad boy of Ferrari,” Kravitz said. “He kind of gave me a funny look. He said ‘what are you talking about?’. I said it was just a joke with Charles Leclerc’s radio messages.
“I’ve got a feeling that’s going to be picked up by the Drive to Survive cameras, which I’m feeling slightly guilty about. They film everything. I don’t know whether they’re going to get that.”
The seat Carlos Sainz is fighting for at the Qatar Grand Prix
Former F1 driver Christian Danner says Sainz ‘doesn’t really care’ what Ferrari think, based upon what he did in Vegas. While he’ll of course want to help the team win the constructors’ title, the feeling is that he has nothing to lose.
Next season, the 30-year-old is likely to be scrapping for the minor points of place. Only in a truly chaotic would he have a chance at finishing on the podium.
From that standpoint, he’ll want to maximise every opportunity he can before Abu Dhabi, by fair means or otherwise. But he’d be wise to preserve his relationships.
One journalist thinks Sainz may no longer be on Ferrari’s ‘list’ because he failed to put the team’s interests first. It’s not out of the question that he returns to Maranello in the future when the ageing Hamilton retires.
