Following Charles Leclerc’s comment that Carlos Sainz was “fighting me harder than the others” on Saturday, the Spaniard hit back saying that during Sunday’s GP “our battle with Charles at the start cost us a lot” – while the Spanish press scathingly accused Monegasque of this “dangerous move” to Saint.
After 4 consecutive podium appearances in as many past Formula 1 GPs, Ferrari failed to do the same at the China race as the SF-24 fell behind both the Red Bull RB20 and – unexpectedly – the McLaren MCL38 in which Lando Norris won 2nd place between Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
But this is not the only problem for the Scuderia. In Shanghai, the first sparks were lit in the relationship between its two drivers, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. Contact between the two on the 16th lap of the Sprint race, during the battle between them, caused Leclerc to complain on the radio that Saint “went over the limit, he’s fighting me more than others”.
The next day, at the Chinese GP, came the new episode of the battle between the two Scuderia drivers, in the first extended corner of Shanghai. The two started from 6th and 7th, and Leclerc in the first corner pushed Saint off the track on the outside – allowing George Russell in the Mercedes to pass them both.
“It was a bit of a crazy race, what we did at the start cost me and Charles a place or two and it had a heavy impact on our race.” Saint pointed out after the finish. “Then we tried to follow her Mercedes of George Russell, I tried to pass him but he went into the pits so I went in too.
We put the hard tire on too early, and had to extend the last one a lot stunt, but we managed to keep fifth place, which I think is the best we could have achieved today”added the Spaniard speaking to the DAZN channel.
Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc on the sidelines at the Chinese GP
SCUDERIA FERRARI PRESS OFFICE
The Spanish press, however, were much more scathing in their comments about Leclerc and his move at Turn 1. Marca newspaper reported that “The team-mate [Λεκλέρ] he moved diagonally 15 meters from one end of the track to the other to be covered by Carlos, who had made a better start, in a dangerous move. For Charles Leclerc, the main opponent and target was Carlos Sainz”.
And he continued writing how “after three races behind Carlos Sainz, Charles preferred to block him team-mate than to claim the best position at the start. He succeeded in pushing Saint off the track to prevent contact between them.”
Saint himself, apart from the single sentence he said above, did not want to talk about the incident of the first stanza. And added that “Honestly, I don’t think we were fast enough this three days. When you’re 6th and 7th in qualifying, there’s not a lot of speed in the car.
We expected to do better in the race, but it didn’t happen. It’s clear that this is the track we’ve been working the hardest on. We have to check if we did everything we could with the car set-up, and if not then we have to work because this type of track didn’t suit us”added the 29-year-old Spaniard.
