During the Spanish Grand Prix, there was more than a bit of tension between the two Ferrari drivers. The two cars made contact on lap 3, with both drivers claiming the other one was in the wrong. At the end, when Leclerc just fell short of overtaking George Russell for P4, he insinuated that it was this contact with Sainz that ultimately cost them the position. In the post-race interviews both drivers also lashed out at each other. Leclerc claimed that Sainz didn’t obey team orders, Sainz claimed that Leclerc always has something to complain about.
It’s a stark difference to Monza last year. The two Ferrari drivers fiercely battled one another during that race in the fight for a podium position. It almost caused them both to crash out, which prompted the famous “No risk, no risk” message from the team. The responses from the drivers after the race were significantly different compared to this past weekend. Sainz: “It was a day where we had to give everything. I gave it everything, it nearly cost me a podium, but I managed to hold on.” Leclerc: “I enjoyed it a lot, I’m sure the guys on the pitwall had a heart attack or two, but to me this is what Formula 1 is about and what it should be like all the time.”
Has anything changed within Ferrari since then? Can’t really think of anything significant concerning the drivers that has changed in the past twelve months…
Sainz leaving puts a strain on the team
It’s obvious that Sainz is disappointed he’s not staying with Ferrari, and how can he not be? When the announcement came that he would be replaced by Hamilton, he was the only race winner for Ferrari in eighteen months. Since then McLaren reaffirmed their line-up, Red Bull extended the contract of Checo, and it looks increasingly like Mercedes might go with either Kimi Antonelli or a placeholder driver like Ocon. It has just been one gut-punch after the other for Sainz. His choices are basically now between taking the gamble on a team such as Williams, Audi or Alpine, or he has to take a sabbatical from F1 and hope that he’ll be in the picture when a seat opens up at a frontrunner team again.
Obviously, that gets in your head. And Carlos himself acknowledged as much before the Spanish Grand Prix. “A decision will be taken very soon. I don’t want to wait any longer. It’s getting to a point where it’s obviously taking space out of my head for quite a few weeks now.”
The pressure of having to find a new seat, the disappointment of having to take a step back when he’s at arguably the peak of his career, and the uncertainty of where he will drive next year, all of that is obviously getting to Sainz a little bit. And I have no doubt that that has affected his relationship with Leclerc too. The two had one of the most supportive and amicable teammate relationships on the grid and that seems to have soured a little bit now.
Ferrari needs to keep the drivers in check
It’s not all on Sainz though. Whenever you hear stuff like this spoken out loud, there’s a lot more that has gone unspoken. Or at least: unheard by us. I wouldn’t be surprised if the two have been butting heads a bit behind the scenes these last few months, and I’m sure Leclerc is just as much to blame for that as Sainz. Knowing that one of the two will leave the team - especially when it’s involuntarily - puts a strain on such a relationship.
That’s why it’s important that the team keeps their drivers in check. Every team on the grid has had to do something like that at one point or another, and this wasn’t any different for Ferrari. Interestingly though, team principal Fred Vasseur appeared in front of a microphone basically telling Leclerc to think a bit longer before he speaks. “I think he complained because he lost half a second or a second in that particular moment, rather than from any damage that we have not seen on the data. It was a small contact, but we didn’t miss anything at that stage of the race.”
The unspoken message there: keep your mouth shut to the public, think about it a bit longer, and we’ll discuss this sort of thing internally after the race.
And I do hope both Sainz and Leclerc take this message to heart. It’s almost guaranteed that they will get in each other’s way a few more times this season, but I really do hope that it doesn’t lead to any serious clashes or crashes.
So Fred, please continue doing what you did this weekend. Because I do hope for both the drivers’ sake and the team’s sake that they can all end this season on good terms.