Not only at Red Bull there was trouble on the radio towards the end of the Brazilian Grand Prix because of a team order. Charles Leclerc urged his Ferrari team to be able to swap places with his teammate Carlos Sainz amid a backdrop for second place in the Drivers’ Championship where the Monegasque is in a battle with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
A late safety car period following the retirement of Lando Norris brought Leclerc back into play after the two touched on lap one, causing Leclerc to crash into the tire wall at Turn Six. However, his F1-75 was only damaged on the front wing, which is why he was able to continue.
Both Ferraris were fitted with relatively new soft tires in the closing stages, allowing them to easily pass Perez in the Red Bull, who was still running on older Mediums. When the places seemed occupied with the two Mercedes at the top, followed by Sainz and Leclerc, the Monegasque knocked on the radio to ask if he could take Sainz’s place on the podium.
Radio traffic from Leclerc: why he wasn’t allowed to pass
“Think about the World Championship if the positions stay like this,” he says to his race engineer Xavier Marcos Padros. Shortly before the end he asks again: “Please think about the championship!”, to which Padros replies: “We think it’s too dangerous.”
Background: While Leclerc was about three seconds behind his team-mate, there was danger from behind from Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen, who were just over a second behind and had a slightly better pace than Leclerc. At that point, the Alpine pilot had the best tires of all the drivers in the field.
After the race, however, he is not exactly enthusiastic about his team’s decision. “Fantastic work,” his race engineer congratulates Leclerc on the strong race to catch up on the radio, to which Leclerc replies sarcastically: “Yes! Unbelievable! Mamma mia. Come on!”
Leclerc contradicts Ferrari race director Mekies
Ferrari race director Laurent Mekies, who represents team boss Mattia Binotto, who stayed in Maranello, as Ferrari leader in Brazil, also radioed into Leclerc’s car after crossing the finish line: “Well done, Charles, you did the best that was possible for us . There were other reasons why we couldn’t make the swap in the end.”
Leclerc’s response follows promptly: “I have no idea what other reasons you’re talking about, but whatever.”
It is interesting that Leclerc said a few weeks ago that second place in the championship means nothing to him and that he only wants to use the last few races so that Ferrari can improve the processes on the race weekends.
Going into the final race in Abu Dhabi, he is now level on 290 points with Perez, with Leclerc ranked second as he has one win more than the Mexican this season. So it’s clear: which of the two will finish the race in Abu Dhabi higher up will grab P2 in the World Championship. If both get no points, Leclerc is sure of the vice championship.