“Drivers Have Lost Trust”: Straining Relationship Between Charles Leclerc and Co. With Ferrari Surfaces

No Formula 1 team can function without a certain amount of trust between its drivers and its personnel. But Ferrari seems to be under the impression that trust isn’t all that important. While Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz might have faith in Ferraris’ machinery to some extent, it seems they have none in their engineers and the pit wall. Because every race weekend, they seem to be taking matters into their own hands—as they did during the Hungarian GP—and it isn’t helping the drivers or the team. It’s a matter of concern for Ferrari, and if it isn’t rectified as soon as possible, Ferrari could lose the little hold it still has left on P4 in the championship.

Don’t you think a driver’s race engineer should be the one giving their driver instructions during the race? Isn’t that their job? Well, at Ferrari, it’s the opposite. Leclerc and Sainz relay information to the pit wall, and based on their feeling, they decide their strategy. This happened in Hungary when Sainz was faster than Leclerc in front of him, but decided to hold the position until Sergio Perez caught up to him. And Ferrari agreed. While discussing Ferrari’s situation on the Chequered Flag podcast, Jack Aitken said, “A driver has to be giving feedback to their team. In those moments, it’s very important to be able to adapt. In those moments, he is the most important sensor in the car—what the driver is feeling. But then Carlos was going on and saying, ‘Let’s keep extending. I’ll try and keep going until Checo catches me.’”

According to Aitken, that’s where Ferrari is going wrong. “You’re thinking everyone else in the race at that point has swapped on to a new set of hards going a lot quicker. That’s the kind of thing only the pit wall and the engineers can see and tell you. And that was the moment that they needed to be hard with him and say, ‘No, this is the strategy.’” But Ferrari didn’t do that. A similar thing happened in the second stint when Sainz was ahead of Leclerc, slowing him down. After a slow pit stop for the Monegasque, he was intent on getting back in front. Considering he was faster, and the team was making no move to swap them, Leclerc had to ask them to do it. While they didn’t do it on track, they made Leclerc pit before Sainz to undercut his teammate.

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Aitken added, “The drivers have clearly just lost a lot of trust in the pit wall to make those decisions in the heat of the moment and to adapt to what they’re seeing.” Considering the pit wall has all the data—including other cars’ performance—it shouldn’t be the drivers adapting to how their car feels. It should be the other way around. But because this hasn’t been happening in the past few races, it’s evident that Leclerc and Sainz have lost some trust in their team. Amidst all this, though, Sainz dismissed any signs of tensions between him and Leclerc.

Carlos Sainz has no animosity towards Charles Leclerc at the moment

For the past few weekends—since Austria, specifically—Sainz has found himself in a disadvantageous position behind Leclerc in every race. And during all three race weekends, he seemed to have the faster pace of the two. While the team asked him to stay behind Leclerc in Austria and Silverstone, he suggested the same himself during the Hungarian GP.

While speaking to the media after the race—where he finished in P8 behind Leclerc in P7—he said, “I don’t care if I’m seventh or eighth, but if my car goes a second faster. I think you’re seeing it in a conspiracy way and it’s not like that. He had a slow stop and they wanted to make up for it. For the team, it’s the same to finish seventh and eighth than eighth and seventh.”

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While there is no tension between Leclerc and Sainz, there sure is between the drivers and Ferrari. Can Ferrari sort this issue out before the summer break, or will it risk losing P4 due to its communication lapse even after F1 starts racing again?