Carlos Sainz calls out Charles Leclerc for ‘complaining too many times after a race’

The two Ferrari drivers racing

Carlos Sainz has said Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc has complained “too many times” after a race, after the pair made contact during the Spanish Grand Prix.

Sainz passed Leclerc early in the race, but Leclerc said contact put the team “on the back foot” as he suffered front wing damage – though a different tyre strategy helped him finish in front of his team-mate come the chequered flag.

Carlos Sainz makes Charles Leclerc quip after Spanish GP contact

Sainz passed Leclerc around the outside at Turn 1 but took to the escape road after the two made contact, rejoining the track ahead early in the race as he was the lead Ferrari on track.

A move to soft tyres late on saw Leclerc eventually finish ahead of Sainz, who ended the race on the less-preferred hard tyres, but he believes the earlier contact caused damage that hindered him from catching the ailing George Russell late on, who was also lacking pace on hard rubber.

“Obviously, we discussed before the race that it was the part of the race where we had to both manage the tyres as much as possible,” Leclerc explained to Sky F1 after the race.

“We know how much Turn 14 is important to do that, so I did, but apparently Carlos wasn’t in the last corner and took that opportunity to overtake, which is a shame because that put us on the back foot and it damaged my front wing for the rest of the race.

“It was a small damage, but everything makes a difference – and when you see how close we are from George at the end, it’s a shame, but it’s like this.

“We will have a discussion inside the team and I’m sure that it will be fine from the next race onwards.”

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When presented with his team-mate’s comments by Sky F1, Sainz pointed out that Leclerc ended up crossing the line ahead in the end after his strategy did not work out for him, quipping that it’s not the first time the Monégasque driver has found an area he is not happy with after the chequered flag.

“I think it’s too many times that he complains after a race about something,” he said of Leclerc.

“I think obviously he might think that…honestly, at this point of this season, I don’t know.

“I was on the attack, we were on a new soft, Mercedes were on a used soft, and we had to go on the attack in the first laps when you have a new tyre and try to pass them, like we said even before the race.

“I passed Charles because I don’t know if he did a mistake or he was just managing a bit too much, and then I went on and I nearly passed Lewis.

“I undercut Lewis, we nearly passed Russell at the pit stop so I think I was trying out there what I what I had to try as a driver, what is required [of] me as a driver and he elected to manage more – and in the end for him, it kind of paid because he beat me at the end on a soft-medium-soft.

“For me, I elected to be aggressive, soft-medium-hard and it didn’t pay off, and it’s what it is.

“I think George and I on the hard at the end we were just too slow while the guys on softs were very quick.”

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