Charles Leclerc said he and Carlos Sainz have worked through any issues resulting from Leclerc’s expletive-laden rant against his Ferrari teammate at the end of last Saturday’s Las Vegas Grand Prix.
“Whatever happened in Vegas, we discussed about it and we are all good, which is the most important thing,” Leclerc told reporters ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday. “I have no doubts about that because we’ve always had a really good relationship with Carlos.”
Leclerc and Sainz traded positions throughout the Vegas race, but at a critical point, Sainz passed Leclerc, who had just exited from a pit-stop and had just been told by race engineer Bryan Bozzi that Sainz was instructed not to put pressure on Leclerc or overtake Leclerc.
Sainz ended up in third, with Leclerc behind him in fourth.
Immediately after the race, Leclerc could be heard on the radio saying, among other things, “Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I did my job, but being nice (bleeps) me over all the (bleeping) time, all the (bleeping) time. It’s not even being nice, it’s just being respectful. I know I need to shut up but …”
Leclerc insisted Thursday that he and Sainz have cleared the air and that it won’t affect future races.
“Sometimes I have overstepped the lines and sometimes he did, and then it only requires a discussion between us two and we look ourselves in the eye,” Leclerc said. “We know each other since a very long time now. We understand each other very, very quickly so I have no doubts. Sometimes we need these kind of things to reset a little bit.”
The race results didn’t affect the constructors standings but Leclerc currently has 319 points, just 21 behind McLaren’s Lando Norris for second overall for the drivers’ championship. Sainz is in fifth with 259 points.
“It’s very clear for both of us that we just want to win the constructors’,” Leclerc said. “It’s by working as team that we’ll achieve that and I’m sure there won’t be any problems with it.”
Ferrari stand 24 points behind leaders McLaren with 103 left to win.
–Field Level Media
