Other than its lack of pace, Ferrari has drawn fierce, widespread criticism today, for its use of team orders which eventually were to cost Charles Leclerc fourth by leaving him exposed to Red Bull's aggressive strategy with Max Verstappen.

Having passed teammate Sebastian Vettel by Turn 1, and then been told to up his pace as he began to lose ground to the Mercedes pair, Leclerc was subsequently ordered to allow the German through.

Once through, Vettel not only lost ground to the Silver Arrows, his lack of pace left Leclerc susceptible once Red Bull went for the undercut with Verstappen.

Furthermore, it marked the third time in as many races that the Italian team has used team orders.

While the media sought to play up the situation, Leclerc wasn't playing ball, insisting that he wants to see the full picture before passing judgement.

"I did a good start, and then the first stint was a little bit messy," the youngster told reporters. "Obviously I think you've seen on TV with Seb.

"I need to understand the full picture, to see the full picture," he continued, "to speak with the engineers and understand the decision.

"I'm pretty sure there is, for sure, an explanation behind this decision and I will understand it," he added. "I need to look at the data and speak with the engineers first to understand. I don't want to make any silly comments before that.

"Anyway, it's the past. It has not been a great race for me, but overall the weekend has not been as strong as I wanted. In qualifying it was OK, but in FP1, FP2 and FP3, and also going in the race without any mileage on high fuel runs was not ideal.

"Overall, today was not a good day, but we'll come back stronger," he insisted.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Spindoctor, 16/04/2019 7:02

"Team Orders are a legal part of Formula 1. Teams use them on various occasions, for various reasons.
Ferrari's problem was that their car wasn't fast enough, and after ordering him to give way to Vettel, they put Leclerc on a doomed tyre strategy.

Vettel drove a mediocre and error-strewn race, but neither he nor Leclerc was going to catch either Bottas nor Hamilton without errors from Mercedes, which didn't happen. They should have focused on Red Bull, which if nothing else might have offered the prospect of a Charles vs Max battle on track...."

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2. Posted by Editor, 15/04/2019 12:28

"@ Pavlo

Have no intention of discussing this further, but in no way did we "highlight just Ferrari" - the article is about Ferrari, not Mercedes, Red Bull or any other team, just Ferrari.

Please don't imply bias when there is none."

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3. Posted by Pavlo, 15/04/2019 11:16

"@ Editor - yes, but I feel it's slightly unfair to highlight just Ferrari.
In my view "team orders" are not just any orders given within the team (otherwise every team does it every race, except when radio is broken), but rather an order to have the faster driver behind the slower. And this was done only once.
As long as F1 has teams, current limitation on parts, and different pit-stop strategies, every top team (incl. Mercedes and RB) is restricting the risks of competition between teammates in one or another way.
"

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4. Posted by Editor, 15/04/2019 9:46

"@ Pavlo

Whether the team orders "worked" or not, they were issued."

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5. Posted by Pavlo, 15/04/2019 9:25

"Team orders or not, Ferrari was purely slow. The fact is, Charles was really slower than Seb, even if not much.
The problem for Charles was not in team orders, but in wrong strategy from Ferrari (that probably could have played very well in case of SC). And still they need to improve the car, it's not really relevant who is Nr. 1 in a team that is not going to win.
A note to the editor: team orders did not work in Bahrain, so it's 2 out of 3."

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6. Posted by Lapps, 14/04/2019 19:02

"Ferrari does not deserve Charles if it continues to treat him like this. They are backing the wrong horse, but have to justify the salary they pay Seb.
Sad, but they will not win the Championship this year. Charles will win a Championship before Seb ever wins another. "

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7. Posted by Toffeecup0, 14/04/2019 18:13

"Say no more vettel seems to think he’s King Kong having priority it’s a joke drivers should be equal team orders are suppose to be banned there should be no number 1 or 2 "

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Leclerc waits on "full picture" on team orders

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