09/07/2022
NEWS STORY
Following his battle with teammate, Carlos Sainz at the start of the Sprint, Charles Leclerc fears that a repeat during the Grand Prix could prove costly for Ferrari.
As the Ferrari pair scrapped through the first few corners, Sainz passing his teammate at Turn 1, only for Leclerc to reclaim the position a couple of corners later, Max Verstappen was able to put clean air between himself and the battling pair, and while the Monegasque held on to second for the remainder of the race the Spaniard was forever on his tail.
Already compromised by poor reliability and strategy, Leclerc fears that continued dog fights between he and his teammate will only benefit Ferrari's rivals.
"Tomorrow is going to be a long race, and tyre management will be quite a bit more important compared to today," he said at the post-Sprint press conference. "So probably tomorrow we cannot afford to do what we did today."
However, he refused to blame that battle with his teammate entirely for Verstappen's easy win.
"Whether this was enough to get the win? I don't think so," he admitted, "because Max was also managing the tyres once he had the gap. So we'll never know what will have happened. But yeah, the work today. It's the way it is."
"I think today there was very little to gain or to lose by the fighting," said Sainz, the Spaniard clearly rejuvenated following his winning weekend at Silverstone.
"We're talking about one point more one point less," he continued, "because the sprint, there's not many points going on. Also Max looked very in control the whole race up front. So it's not like we lost out basically."
From the start of the season, team boss, Mattia Binotto has been adamant that there are no team orders, that the drivers are free to race, as long as there is no silliness and the result is not compromised.
"I don't know for the rules of engagement," said Leclerc. "Obviously we are we are not the one to decide. It will be more Mattia."
"Mattia will decide and the team," added Sainz, "but it's not like we lost a lot and it didn't look like Max was panicking too much upfront with the pace.
"But yeah, we need to make sure we stay closer at the beginning of the stint and we are closer at the end of the stint. I think this is what we need to try and do tomorrow."
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