Direct clash
It officially explodes drivers’ grana at Ferrari. At the end of a Spanish GP in which the reds found themselves being there fourth force on the trackbehind Red Bull, McLaren and even Mercedes, the one holding the spotlight in the interview ‘ring’ was above all the Leclerc-Sainz duel. The Monegasque, who emerged with a damaged wing, he didn’t like it and let it be known on the microphones of Sky Sports F1. However, the idol of the Barcelona public also responded to the same broadcaster, returning the accusations of a alleged misconduct.
“For me the situation was clear – said Sainz commenting on the duel in the first laps, when he forced a very aggressive overtaking to temporarily take fifth position on the track – we had a new soft, Mercedes had a used soft and we had to go on the attack. This is what I did. I don’t know what happened to Charles on the first lap, I don’t know if he made a mistake, but I had the opportunity to overtake him and it’s not like I can keep up for the rest of my life. Especially because from then on I went on the attack from the Mercedes and was close to overtaking them in the first stint”.
Performance declining
Clear words, which however risk accentuating the fracture in the red coupleespecially considering the fact that Sainz will leave at the end of the year and therefore in the next GPs it is difficult to imagine him inclined to bestow favors on his teammate: “I wanted to move forward. I don’t know what he’s complaining about” reiterated the Madrilenian, referring to Leclerc, before focusing on the disappointing performance of the SF-24.
“I expected to be closer. McLaren and Red Bull are far away and Mercedes have improved so much that they are now ahead of us on these types of track. If we returned to Monaco tomorrow we would fight for the victory, but now there are more races like Barcelona than Monaco. We need to improve: on long medium-high speed curves we struggle more than others“he concluded.
