When Lewis Hamilton revealed pre-season he was leaving Mercedes to drive for Ferrari next season, not one but two teams were left facing 24 races where one of their drivers was leaving the team and he would have little to lose if a team order was disobeyed.

Yet while team orders have been respected thus far, the inter team battles are hotting up. Prior to the Spanish Grand Prix, Hamilton was 8-1 down in qualifying and final race standings to George Russell but at one of Lewis favoured circuits in Barcelona, the pendulum shifted as Hamilton was ahead in qualifying and claimed a podium third in the race.

 

 

 

Mercedes poor strategy for Russell

Russell’s strategy was mostly to blame, as Mercedes with little data on how the hard compound tyre would work, fitted this rubber to Russell’s car at his second and final pit stop. Carlos Sainz pitted on the same lap and Ferrari too gave the Spaniard the hardest compound in the Pirelli tyre selection.

However, earlier in the race after the initial flurry of lap one activity, the Ferrari drivers were running nose/astern with Charles Leclerc ahead on track. Apparently Carlo Sainz thought his team mate was allowing the gap to grow too much to the Mercedes’ cars ahead and on lap three he swept around the front of the Monegasques car at turn one.

A small amount of contact was made and having had the back end of his car nudged, Sainz decided to take the alternative route around the corner and finished up ahead of Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque driver complained to his team over pit radio and the stewards noted the event, but quickly decided on “no further investigation.”

After the chequered flag, Leclerc was visibly upset in the media pen claiming the overtake from Carlos was not part of the agreed approach the team had decided on for the race.

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Leclerc claims Sainz broke pre-race agreement

“We had a clear strategy at the beginning of the race, with the team, to both save tyres to attack later on,” explained eventual fifth-place finisher Leclerc.

“Carlos on that lap, he didn’t do any saving in Turn 14 and of course had an opportunity to overtake in Turn 1. Which is a bit of a shame because we lost time between us, I damaged my front wing because of Carlos making the turn, not seeing that I was on the inside. And that made our race more difficult.

“But it wouldn’t have changed significantly the end result.”

Leclerc was asked whether he felt Sainz should have left more room, but the monegasque insisted his team mate should not have tried the overtaking move at all. Charles did show a small amount of sympathy for Carlos predicament: “I also understand that it’s his home race, and it’s also an important moment of his career, so I guess he wanted to do something a bit spectacular.

“But I probably wasn’t the right person to do that with.”

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Sainz blows past Lelcerc

Of course Leclerc is referring to the fact that Carlos Sainz does not yet have an F1 drive for next season and is suggesting his behaviour was grandstanding in an effort to catch a future employer’s eye. Leclerc concluded: “I think he’ll [Sainz] see the image and understand I was on the inside and he couldn’t turn in at that point”.

Leclerc’s words wee put to Carlos Sainz who was instantly dismissive of his team mate’s behaviour. “It’s too many times he complains after the race about something,” said Sainz, who was given a dud tyre strategy, having to complete around half the race on the slow, hard tyre.

“I was on the attack. We were on a new soft, Mercedes was on a used soft. We had to go on the attack on the first laps when you have a new tyre and pass them. Like we said even before the race.

“I passed Charles because…I don’t know if he did a mistake or was just managing a bit too much. Then I went on and nearly passed Lewis, and I undercut Lewis, nearly passed Russell at pitstops,” the defiant Spaniard explained.

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Charles’ patience pays off 

Yet it was soon clear the two Ferrari drivers were on different race strategy’s. Sainz wanted to push on early in the race, which of course would mean he wold use up his tyres more quickly and need to stop for fresh rubber earlier.

“I was trying to try what I have to as a driver,” continued Carlos. “Do what is required for me to do as a driver. He had to manage more, in the end for him it kind of paid because he beat me at the end with a soft-mediium-soft [tyre strategy].

“I elected to be aggressive, soft-medium-hard, and it didn’t pay off. Is what it is.”

Team boss Fred Vasseur was asked for his views on the claims by LecLerc that Sainz had cost the team points but the politically astute Frenchman cautioned reading too much into F1 drivers’ comments the minute they leave the cockpit.

Renault/Alpine F1 exit

 

 

 

Ferrari boss plays down Leclerc ‘whinger’ label

Rather than blame one of his drivers, Vasseur preferred to take the view that a whole plethora of mistakes had contributed to Ferrsri’s lack of fortune in the Spanish sunshine.

“I think you can find 10 examples of 10 circumstances in the race where we missed half a second,” Vasseur said.

“After, Carlos let him go [Sainz had been asked to let Leclerc through] very easily later on. We missed a couple of tenths during two or three laps. Let us discuss, and [let’s] not draw conclusions after the first comments of the driver when he’s jumped out of the car.”

With fourteen races to go with Leclerc and Sainz as team mates, more trouble will inevitably brew as it has done frequently during their four seasons together in Maranello. Having intimated his team mate was a serial ‘whinger’, Carlos then amusingly had a moan of his own about a move made by Lewis Hamilton.

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Sainz turns on Hamilton

Sainz claimed Hamilton “ran me off the track” when the Mercedes retook the position created by Carlos first stop undercut. “I was half a car length ahead and normally the rule says that if you’re ahead around the outside, they need to give you space if you have half a car ahead,” Sainz explained.

Carlos took the decision to take the outside line on the corner of turn one, given previous rulings made by the F1 race stewards this season. “That’s normally what stewards have ruled this year, so I was trying to benefit from that rule because that’s how they’ve ruled up until now.

“I’m not saying he was racing hard or not hard, just trying to apply the rule that the stewards have applied all season.” Again the incident was noted by the race stewards but just as earlier the final ruling was “no further investigation.”

The relationship between the Ferrari drivers is in melt down and it was surprising how robust Carlos Sainz was in his post race media rounds, calling out his team mate for complaining too much.

Given the drivers are matched fairly evenly, they will time and again be on similar parts of the track this season, maybe even requiring a team orders intervention.

Hamilton now identified in Mercedes sabotage accusations

 

 

 

Hamilton deluded after email scanda

Lewis Hamilton was at the centre of the latest F1 paddock gossip as an email was circulated suggesting Mercedes have been nobbling its once superstar driver. As the Formula One teams assembled in Barcelona, Hamilton denied all knowledge of the document, yet there was an air of authenticity about its contents given recent complaints made by Lewis himself.

As the cars hit the track in anger, Hamilton looked to be on form as he topped the time sheets in free practice two. Mercedes had brought upgrades to the troublesome W15 machine, though by FP3 the true pace of the Mercedes became clear.

Lewis was 0.346 seconds slower than Carlos Sainz who was quickest in the final practice session, then in qualifying Hamilton who only for the second time this year conquered his team mate, was again 0.318 seconds behind the surprise pole sitter Lando Norris… READ MORE