Hot back and forth between the two Ferrari drivers immediately after the conclusion of the Spanish GP
The debut at the microphones starts from the controversial initial episode with his Spanish teammate Charles Leclerc after the Spanish GP: “Sainz’s overtaking of me at the start of the race it was out of place. The plan was to conserve the tires. At the last corner I did it, he didn’t and then he overtook me. There was no point in taking this kind of risk. I had a small damage to the front wing which cost me some time. Carlos was at his last home race with Ferrari and is in a delicate position for next year: let’s say that he wanted to put on a bit of a show but this thing cost me a position. Could something different have been done in terms of strategy? But, after the fact, you can say what you want but with ifs and buts you don’t get anywhere. We missed somethingnow we have to analyze our match carefully.”
For his part, Sainz responds bluntlythen goes further by reporting the difficulties of the Red team approaching the next events: “We had a new soft at the start, the used Mercedes soft, so we had to attack straight away. Maybe Charles made a mistake and I took advantage of the opportunity, I certainly won’t be told twice. I was close to attacking the Mercedes. I don’t know what Charles has to complain about, on this occasion I really don’t know, it’s not like I can wait to keep up my whole life“.
“I expected a better result here in Barcelona, at least be a little closer to the top. Red Bull and McLaren, on the other hand, are far away and on tracks like this even Mercedes seems to be ahead of us. I’m sure that if we return to Monte Carlo tomorrow we’ll win again, the problem is that from here on out there will be more… Barcelona than Monte Carlo on the calendar, starting with Spielberg in a week. On high and medium speed tracks we struggle more than our opponents.”
To sum up the disappointing Catalan weekend for the Reds is Team Principal Frederic Vasseur: “There was a small contact between Charles and Carlos at the start of the race, but that wasn’t what compromised our race. We were one lap away from catching Russell. We arrived in the same positions as at the start… We have to do a better job on Saturdays, we have to start further. We tried the hard tires with Sainz and to extend the stint with Leclerc as much as possible and then attack with the soft at the end but, as mentioned, we missed a lap. There are four teams very close to the top, a small change can make a big difference. It’s all very open. In Austria everything will be different, there will also be the Sprint format there and the track will be more suitable for us.
