Charles Leclerc has quashed all rumors suggesting that there is a rift in the Ferrari camp after Carlos Sainz claimed his maiden F1 win last week at Silverstone.
The Monegasque driver's 2022 F1 British GP weekend did not go to plan after he missed out on a potential win owing to a baffling strategy call from Ferrari.
Leclerc felt hamstrung by Ferrari as he saw teammate Sainz take the win while he could only manage P4 despite being in the lead of the race going into the final 10 laps of the contest.
Matters were only made worse post-race when the broadcast cameras caught the 24-year-old in conversation with Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto, with neither individual looking particularly comfortable.
Speaking to the media ahead of the 2022 F1 Austrian GP this weekend, Charles Leclerc nipped rumors of in-fighting in the Scuderia stables after some team members were absent from Sainz's celebration photo in the bud. He said:
“It is a shame to see all of this type of things. It is definitely not what is happening inside the team. We are a very united team, we’ve always been and it’s not these difficult races that will make it change. Were we disappointed after last weekend? I think we were because speaking about last weekend, we were one-two and we finished one-four so part of the team were disappointed. But this was definitely not the reason whatsoever for not everybody being on the picture.”
Charles Leclerc admits 'there are no hard feelings whatsoever' between him and Carlos Sainz after 2022 F1 British GP
Charles Leclerc has assured the media that 'there are no hard feelings whatsoever' between him and Carlos Sainz after the latter's maiden F1 win in the latest installment of the British GP.
Speaking in the aforementioned interview at the Red Bull Ring, the Ferrari driver explained the reason for the absence from Sainz's celebratory photo session. He said:
“We wanted to do a first picture… but Carlos was not there. So we had to delay everything. But there are no hard feelings whatsoever. Of course, there is disappointment because on my side, I can only be disappointed, obviously, leading the race and finishing fourth. But everybody was very happy for Carlos, and this is the feeling that there is inside the team. We need to be better, of course, for these things to not happen again."
Heading into the second Sprint weekend of the season in Austria, Charles Leclerc is third in the World Drivers' Championship standings with 138 points after 10 rounds of racing.