Ferrari’s graining-dominated but podium-yielding Las Vegas Grand Prix was overshadowed by post-race angst from one of its drivers, Charles Leclerc, who admitted afterwards he felt internal agreements weren’t being respected.
Leclerc, who finished just over two seconds behind third-placed team-mate Carlos Sainz after they swapped positions multiple times during the race, unloaded after the chequered flag in an explosive rant that race engineer Bryan Bozzi was clearly hoping to – but proved unable to – interrupt.
Told by Bozzi to pick up rubber after the flag for weight, Leclerc replied sarcastically: “Yes, whatever you want, as always”. And he then unloaded.
Bozzi: Charles, you did your job… okay, thank you.
Leclerc: Yeah. Yeah-yeah. Yeah, I did my job, but, uh… being nice f***s me over all the f***ing time. All the f***ing time. It’s not even being nice, it’s just being respectful, I know I need to-
Bozzi: Charles.
Leclerc: -shut up, but at one point it’s always the same. Oh my f***ing God.
Bozzi: Okay. But anyway, you did the right thing for the team.
Bozzi then reminded Leclerc again to pick up rubber, receiving a “yeah-yeah, f**ing pick up, what the f**k you want” in reply – although this may have been unintentional as a public message, given Leclerc then apologised for having had the radio on and quickly pivoted to asking about McLaren and George Russell’s winning margin.
Post-race comments from Leclerc, however, reinforced that there was indeed an issue – but what was it related to?
Both cars encountered big tyre graining trouble in the first stint on the medium tyres after pushing so hard behind Russell but failing to get past. Leclerc had voluntarily let Sainz pass in that stint because his own pace was so terrible – only for Sainz to swiftly encounter the same drop-off.
So Leclerc cost himself track position, thinking he was helping the team, then regained it just before the second pitstops as Sainz drastically faded and let Leclerc by.
Sainz went into the pits after that – albeit doing a needless extra lap with Ferrari not being ready to service him – which in the end meant he undercut Leclerc by three laps.
Exiting the pitlane after his second stop on lap 31, Leclerc had been told it would be “really close” with Sainz, who by then had tyres that were up to temperature.
Ferrari told Leclerc across two messages that Sainz had been told not to overtake or put Leclerc under pressure, and Leclerc could focus on taking care of his tyres. Then Sainz passed Leclerc at the next corner anyway.
A clearly unhappy Leclerc immediately suggested Ferrari “maybe try in Spanish” – before following Sainz home over the rest of the race distance.
He didn’t address his frustration when speaking to the written press, but did get quizzed about it by Sky Sports.
“Just a little bit [of frustration],” he said.
“It’s ok. Every time there is this kind of frustration there is not the background for everybody and there is no need for me to go into any details of everything that’s discussed so I won’t go further into that discussion.
“Frustrating, yes, but it doesn’t change anything for the team. It’s frustrating for the drivers’ [championship]a second place is always nice, but at the end of the day it’s ok.”
The drivers’ championship reference is pointing to Lecelrc being 21 points off Lando Norris in what is the highest-available championship position now that Max Verstappen has clinched the 2024 title. Ferrari is also fighting McLaren in the constructors’ championship reducing the gap to 24 after Vegas with two races remaining.
“I think I did my part in the first stint when I had the tyres that were completely gone, I didn’t want to fight so I let Carlos by and then the rest is – we will discuss it within the team. I don’t want to go into details,” Leclerc continued.
But when probed further, he did specify it was “not about the team favouring one or the other” – but rather about “things that we have been told, and that weren’t respected”.
“Again, I’ve already said too much. I don’t want to go into the details whatsoever. It’s just frustrating when it’s like this and it’s been frustrating for me, but I can understand not everybody understands.”
What Sainz and Vasseur said
Leclerc’s answers – he also broached the topic speaking to Sky Sports Italy – suggested it wasn’t just about the specific instruction to Sainz but potentially a wider pre-race agreement, but nobody at Ferrari has gone into detail on what that was.
Asked about Leclerc’s frustration, Sainz – who is leaving Ferrari at the end of the season – made it clear he felt nobody was happy with how Ferrari executed the race.
A point of contention for him, alongside Ferrari not being ready to service him in that second pitstop, was the fact he’d been begging to be called into the pits in the laps leading up to it and wasn’t being listened to.
“I think he grained the medium tyres and I managed to get ahead before the pitstop on mediums,” said Sainz.
“Then I did grain my hards, he [Leclerc] was coming quick behind me, and me anticipating what it was going to be, a situation – because Lewis [Hamilton] was straight behind Charles at the time, and I was pretty sure the team was going to ask me to let Charles by, because he was quicker at the time, as I was on grained tyres.
“I asked the team two or three times to box me, to get me out of the way, and get me a new set of hards to make sure I wasn’t losing a lot of race time by having to let Charles by and then having to fight Lewis at the same time. For some reason we didn’t box.
“I ended up having to let Charles by a lap later, and losing a lot of race time. And by the time I was going to box we didn’t even box.
“So… I guess he’s not happy but I’m also not happy by the way things were handled at the time. And yeah, I think no one’s happy today in the team because we all expected a bit more.
“I am on the podium so at least I got that for the team, but at the same time I don’t think we could’ve finished much better than P3 and P4 today.”
Vasseur, for his part, acknowledged that Leclerc may be unhappy with being told Sainz won’t put him under pressure and then being overtaken – but said: “I think it’s more the fact that the situation was really difficult for everybody. We will discuss tonight, it won’t be an issue.”
He said he was “not worried at all” about any suggestion Leclerc may be less of a team player going forward.
“I think again, it’s always the same story,” Vasseur added. “That they have to make comments – or they don’t have to make comments, but they’re doing comments – in the lap, and they don’t have always the full picture.
“We will discuss together and it won’t be an issue.”
