Is tension building between Ferrari teammates? Leclerc ‘upset’ with Sainz

Ex-Ferrari team boss Peter Windsor believes an incident that occurred during a disappointing Australian Grand Prix weekend highlights that all is not well between Leclerc and Sainz. 

After qualifying only seventh and two places behind his teammate in Melbourne, Leclerc was heard sarcastically thanking Sainz for a tow on his final lap of Q3. 

“S**t lap, I had no prep this time,” Leclerc told his team over the radio. “Big thanks to Carlos for the tow. Got a bit of speed there, always nice.”

Leclerc’s torrid start to the season continued on race day as he failed to complete the first lap after being tagged into a spin that left him beached in the gravel trap. 

And Windsor reckons Leclerc’s reaction at the end of qualifying was “political”. 

“In Q3, Charles was quite annoyed that he didn’t get any sort of tow or help from Carlos Sainz,” Windsor said on his YouTube channel.

“It would have been only on, I guess, the finishing straight. I don’t think there’s anywhere else in Melbourne you can get any help at all.

“I thought it was odd that he made that public, that he was upset about that, because you’ve got to live in your own world and you’ve got to be very cocooned when you’re at Ferrari.

“You’ve got your guys and and you’ve got to work in a very apolitical way, so it was quite a political reaction I think he had to it all.

“To me, even if Charles felt that Carlos was in a position to help him, I think it’s quite naïve of him to think that Carlos would.

“Why would Carlos Sainz help Charles Leclerc any more than Charles would help Carlos really?

“Maybe he would because he doesn’t really ever see Carlos as a true threat, but Carlos Sainz has just come off a very good Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

“He’s done pretty well so far over the Australian Grand Prix weekend [and] above all he just wants to outqualify Charles Leclerc.

“To think that Carlos is then going to try and help Charles with the tow was, I think, a bit naïve.

“I’m surprised that Charles even allowed that thought to come into his head because it’s unlike him to think that way.

“I think, partly because of that, he didn’t qualify well and he had a terrible race.

“We all know what happened in the race and that’s part of not qualifying well.”

Windsor continued: “I think that’s a really interesting dynamic of what’s going on at Ferrari right now.

“If I was managing Charles Leclerc, I’d be saying to Charles right now, ‘the best thing you can do is to have a great relationship with Carlos Sainz because you might need him as the season goes on’.

“‘You are quicker – don’t worry about that – but you might need him. The last thing you need is to draw any sort of rift between you two.

“‘And right now, Carlos Sainz is hurting badly because of the ridiculous penalty he was given at the final restart in Melbourne, so the best thing you can do is actually get on his bandwagon, sympathise with him and go along with how ludicrous that penalty was and just put your arm around him a bit’.

“That’s what I would say if I was managing Charles. I doubt that’s happening.”