Featured Image Credit: F1TV / Sky Sports
Topics: Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Formula 1
Ryan Smart
Carlos Sainz's team radio exchange with his Ferrari race engineer - which occurred just moments before an incident with team-mate Charles Leclerc at the Las Vegas Grand Prix - has emerged.
Sainz finished third for the Scuderia in Vegas behind Lewis Hamilton and race winner George Russell.
Leclerc finished fourth behind his team-mate, but was left furious after the race and told race engineer Bryan Bozzi over the radio: "Yeah, I did my job. But speaking nice, f**k me all the f***ing time. All the f***ing time. It's not being nice. It's just being respectful. I know I need to shut up but at one point is always the same."
While Leclerc's rant appears to stem from a culmination of incidents with Ferrari during the season, his anger was heightened by a moment at the beginning of his third stint.
Advert
Sainz was asked not to 'put pressure' on his team-mate when he left the pit lane for the final time, but the Monegasque driver emerged directly in front of him.
Sainz, with the straight line speed advantage, overtook Leclerc heading into turn three.
The situation could have been avoided had the Spaniard pitted a lap earlier, as he would have re-entered the track ahead of his team-mate.
Advert
A miscommunication with Ferrari ended with Sainz attempting to pit on that lap, before his race engineer Riccardo Adami told him to stay out. He was forced to drive back across the white pit entry line, risking a penalty which he ultimately avoided.
Now, the full exchange between Sainz and his engineer has emerged.
Sainz said: "Box me, guys, box me. I'm too slow. I'm gonna lose time here."
Adami replied: "Box, box this lap. Box this lap. Let Charles by, and box."
Advert
Sainz does let Leclerc through on the back straight, but as he approaches the pits, Adami shouts: "Box, Carlos, box. Pit confirm. Stay out, stay out!"
When Sainz asked what happened, his engineer stated: "We're not ready," to which the driver fumed: "Wake up, guys! Come on."
Speaking after the race, Sainz said of his Grand Prix: "We just simply didn't execute in general. We just didn't execute a very good race.
Advert
"I think we stayed out one lap too late on mediums, two laps too late on hards and by the time I was going to pit, we had this messy radio communication in the pit entry, which probably made me lose that lap that I was completely grained and I had to let Charles pass, plus the two or three that I lost in pit entry ... [otherwise] maybe we could have ended up fighting Lewis [for second]."