Is tension building between Ferrari F1 teammates? Charles Leclerc ‘upset’ with Carlos Sainz

Ex-Ferrari team boss Peter Windsor believes an incident that occurred during a disappointing Australian Grand Prix weekend highlights that all is not well between Leclerc and Sainz.&n♎bsp;
After qualifying only seventh and two places behind his te🌜ammate in Melbourne, Leclerc was heard sarcastically thanking Sainz for a tow on his final lap of Q3.
“S**t lap, I had no pre൲p this time,” Leclerc told his team over🌳 the radio. “Big thanks to Carlos for the tow. Got a bit of speed there, always nice.”
Leclerc’s torrid start to the season 💃continued 𝕴on race day as he failed to complete the first lap after being tagged into a spin that left him beached in the gravel trap.
And Windsor reckons Leclerc’s reaction at th💝e end of qualifying was “political”.
“In Q3, Charles was quite anꦛnoyed that he didn’t get any sort of tow or help from Carlos Sainz,” Windsor said on his YouTube channel.
“It would have been only on, I guess, the finishing straight. I doꦏn’t think there’s anywhere else in Melbourne you can get any help at all.

“I thought it was odd that he made that public, that he was upset about that, because you’ve got to live in your own world꧂ and you’ve got to be very cocooned when you’re at Ferrari.
“You’ve got your guys and and you’ve got to work in a very apolitical way, so it was quite a p𒊎olitical reaction I think he had to it all.
“To me, even if Charles felt that Carlos was in a position ꧑to help him, I think it𝓡’s quite naïve of him to think that Carlos would.
“Why would Carlos Sainz help Charles L꧟eclerc any more than Charles would helpꦓ Carlos really?
“Maybe he would because he doesn’t really ever see Carlos as a true threat, but Carlo🐟s Sainz has just come off a very good S💟audi Arabian Grand Prix.
“He’s done pretty well so far over the Australian Grand Prix weekend [and] a🌸bove all he just wants to outqualify Charles Leclerc.
“To think that Carlos is then going to try and help Charles with the tow was, I thinkꦦ, a bit naïve.
“I’m surprised that Charles ev𒆙en allowed that thought to come into his head because it’s unlike him to t𓆏hink that way.
“I think, partly because of that, he didn’t qualify well and he had♛ a terrible race.
“We all know what happened in the race𝓡 and that’s part ofཧ not qualifying well.”

Windsor continued:🎉 “I think 🙈that’s a really interesting dynamic of what’s going on at Ferrari right now.
“If I was managing Charles Leclerc, I’d be saying to Charles right no🎐w, ‘the best thing you can do is to have a great relationship with Carlos Sainz because you might need him as the season goes on’.
“‘You are quicker – don’t worry𝔉 about that – but you might need him. The last thing you need is to draw any sort of rift between you two.
“‘And right now, Carlos Sainz is hurting badly because ꦗof the ridiculous penalty he was given at the final restart in Melbourne, so the best thing you can do is actually get on his bandwagon, sympathise with him and go along with how ludicrous that penalty was and just put your arm around him a bit’.
“That’s 👍what I would say if I was managing Charles. I doubt that’s happening.”

Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for wuqian0821.com around the world. Often🦂 reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.