Ferrari boss makes his stance clear amid Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc row

Frederic Vasseur was unmoved amid questions of tension between Ferrari drivers after Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz publicly criticised each other.

The Ferrari drivers were not pleased with one another’s actions after the Spanish Grand Prix. They made contact during the race when Sainz overtook Leclerc and the latter, unimpressed with that move, voiced his frustration as he spoke to reporters

He pointed to the fact he finished half-a-second behind George Russell as a consequence of that duel with his team-mate and said: “We discussed before the race that it was the part of the race where we both had to manage tyres as much as possible. We know how much turn 14 is to do that so I did, but apparently Carlos wasn’t in the last corner and took that opportunity to overtake.

“It’s 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 [bit of] damage but everything makes a difference and when you see how close we were to George at the end, it’s a shame. We’ll have a discussion inside the team and I’m sure it will be fine for the next race

Sainz wasn’t as understanding as Leclerc expected, though, and snapped back by saying: “Too many times he complains after the race about something… I passed Charles – I don’t know if he made a mistake or was managing a bit too much, and then I went on and nearly passed Lewis… I was just trying out there what I have to try as a driver.”

Team principal Vasseur wasn’t willing to give the spat the time of days as he was asked about it later on. And he also dismissed Leclerc’s claim that his battle with Sainz was the reason why he finished behind Russell.

The Frenchman said: “I think you can find 10 examples of 10 circumstances in the race where we missed half a second, or others that were after when Carlos let him go very easily also later on. And we missed a couple of tenths during two or three laps. Let us discuss and not to draw a conclusion after the first comment of the driver when he jumped out of the car.”