Internal battles and poor race management for Ferrari: "Nobody is happy after Las Vegas"

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Ferrari, Las Vegas ruins the harmony between Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz: to win the F1 championship, serenity must be restored. Both drivers harshly criticize the race management, accusing each other and also questioning the decisions made by the pit wall. Frédéric Vasseur will have to go the extra mile to restore an internal peace that seems to have vanished.

One clear takeaway from the Las Vegas weekend is that Mercedes, no matter how the race unfolded, was untouchable. The Brackley team nailed the car setup and ran away, securing a one-two finish that made up for the misfortune at Spa-Francorchamps. Ferrari achieved the best possible result, securing third and fourth places, but the atmosphere was soured by clashes between Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.

While the Monegasque driver is critical of his teammate, accusing him of disobeying team orders – which mandated not attacking car #16 after the second tire change – the Spaniard criticizes the race management, complaining about an excessively delayed pit stop. The frenemies from Maranello will need to establish a truce, however, to withstand McLaren’s resurgence in Qatar.

Drama in Las Vegas, Carlos Sainz’s point of view
According to Carlos Sainz, the issues between teammates stem from poor race management by the pit wall: “[Leclerc] had graining with the mediums, I overtook him before the pit stops, then I had graining with the hards, and he quickly caught up. Since Lewis was right behind Charles, I was sure the team would ask me to let him pass.”

“I asked the team two or three times to get me out of the way, to pit me for a new set of tires because I was losing a lot of time, having to let Charles pass and then having to fight with Lewis at the same time. For some reason, though, we didn't pit, and I ended up letting him pass a lap later than expected, losing a lot of time.” – he pointed out at the end of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

“I imagine he's not happy, but I'm also not happy with how things were handled at that moment. Nobody on the team is happy today because we all expected something more.” – Carlos Sainz concluded.

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