10/10/2019
NEWS STORY
Charles Leclerc insists that all is fine at Ferrari, in term of his relationship with the team and teammate, Sebastian Vettel.
Sochi saw the Monegasque involved in a public quarrel with his team, just a week after a similar row in Singapore, when agreements made before the race were not adhered to.
In Russia, Leclerc is said to have agreed a deal that would see him give a tow to Vettel at the start in order to stop Lewis Hamilton benefiting. However, the German made a superb start and having passed the Briton subsequently passed his fellow Ferrari driver.
There followed a dispute between Ferrari and Vettel as the German claimed that he was leading the race due to his own strong start and not the tow from Leclerc. However, it proved to be moot, for Vettel subsequently retired with an MGU-K issue.
Asked about the situation at Suzuka today, Leclerc admitted that "there were some misunderstandings from the car, but we've had a discussion and everything is clear now.
"It felt like it was a huge deal from the outside, which it definitely wasn't," he added, "but now everything is fine."
Asked to explain the "misunderstanding" and what wasn't previously clear, he said: "That's clear from the beginning of the season, we need to obey team orders.
"What is clear is that the situation wasn't clear for both of the drivers starting the race. So that's the most important thing.
"We spoke about it and will make sure this situation doesn't happen again in the future."
Asked what is more important to him, the teams being ahead or himself, he said: "The priority is always to do good for the team, but it's the same at every team, Seb wants to beat me and I want to beat him just as much.
“But the priority is to do good for the team which we all do."
Vettel prefers to look ahead rather than back, telling reporters at Ferrari's media conference: "We spoke about it obviously, more than once. We speak with each other. Maybe different to what some people think. But I think it's pretty clear. Obviously now it's two weeks ago so we look forward.
"We didn't write anything in stone," he continued. "I don't think it's necessary. Probably there's certain things that we could've done better looking back. But in the end we look forward and look forward to this race and the next races. So not worried too much."
Check out our Thursday gallery from Suzuka, here.