New Ferrari data helps uncover true culprit in Leclerc v Sainz war

Ferrari exploded again in Las Vegas at a key moment of the season for the Italian team, which has not won a title since 2008.

Unexpectedly out-paced by Mercedes, the race management with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc was also very poor which triggered the Monegasque’s brutal anger against his teammate without the Spaniard really being guilty of anything at all.

How Ferrari pitted Charles Leclerc against Carlos Sainz

Ferrari had marked the Las Vegas race as the place where it would look to deal the final blow to McLaren in the fight for the Constructors’ World Championship.

And despite scoring good points, the Maranello-based team was completely outclassed by George Russell and also ‘helped’ Lewis Hamilton from the pit wall to make his way to P2. Although Hamilton would have surely reached that position without any help from Ferrari sooner or later.

The race started with Russell holding P1 from pole position and Sainz suffering from a bit of wheelspin on the dirty part of the grid which meant he had to defend his position from Pierre Gasly on the outside of Turn 1, leaving Leclerc with room for the other Ferrari driver to climb from P4 to P2.

During the first few laps, Leclerc pushed hard to try and attack Russell. He was unsuccessful. For his part, Sainz preferred to keep the gap to his teammate, taking advantage of Pierre Gasly’s lack of pace to take better care of his tyres, which from the first moments of the race were already showing signs of graining.

From lap 7 onwards, Leclerc suffered an abrupt drop in performance as he killed his tyres in his attempt to catch Russell. Sainz overtook him at the start of lap 8 on the main straight. Verstappen did the same with the Monegasque on lap 9 to reach P3.

Russell continued to open up the gap to Sainz to over five seconds by lap 10. Both Ferraris were clearly suffering from graining with the Mercedes driver and Verstappen managing the tyres better in this first phase of the race.

Leclerc was the first driver in the leading group to pit. And with the threat of a Verstappen attack on track or in the pits in the form of an undercut, Sainz also pitted a lap later to fit the hard tyre for the first time in the race.

The Spaniard came out ahead of Leclerc. But by stopping so early, both Leclerc and Sainz came out in traffic behind the group of Kevin Magnussen, Valtteri Bottas and Franco Colapinto.

Verstappen, who stopped on lap 12, with a great pitstop of just two seconds managed to get out just ahead of the Argentinean who kept Sainz behind for almost the entire lap, while Verstappen also got rid of Bottas and Magnussen. With traffic gone for Ferrari, the gap between Verstappen and Sainz exceeded three seconds.

Meanwhile, in the lead was Lewis Hamilton who was taking advantage of the clean air to get more out of his medium tyres and thus have a tyre advantage in the following stints. Something that allowed him to avoid traffic and also to come out of the pits with a gap of only three seconds to both Ferraris and with only Lando Norris in between them.

Sainz pushed to close the gap to Verstappen and Hamilton got rid of Norris to move to just over a second behind Leclerc on lap 17. Sainz continued to push but was unable to close the gap to Verstappen to less than two seconds.

As he continued to push to maintain the pace he didn’t have with the hard tyre, Sainz suffered further from graining as Leclerc did during the first 10 laps trying to overtake Russell. The drop in performance was not as direct as with the medium tyre, but the Spaniard was clearly holding off Leclerc and Hamilton, both of whom had clearly better pace.

On lap 24, Leclerc was still two seconds behind Sainz and within a matter of two laps he was in the DRS zone and with plenty of pace to overtake. Not to hinder his teammate on track, Sainz obeyed the team orders from the pit wall of letting Leclerc through and quickly asked Ferrari to pit him again, knowing that Hamilton’s overtake was also inevitable in the form of an undercut or on the track.

Riccardo Adami, Sainz’s race engineer, confirmed the pit stop to the Spaniard: ‘Pit confirm and box’ and just as he was about to pit at the end of lap 27, they cancelled the pit stop at the last instant: ‘stay out, stay out!’ in true Hamilton and Bono style at the 2018 German Grand Prix where Lewis received a reprimand for overstepping the white line of the pitlane entry.

It wasn’t a penalty in that case just as it wasn’t a penalty for Sainz in Las Vegas because they never made it into the pit lane and because the return to the ‘track’ was not done in an unsafe manner.

Sainz’s race engineer said on the radio that the pit crew “were not ready” at that moment to make that very much needed second pit stop even when Carlos had already braked before making it into the pit lane entry as we can see in this next graphic.

We estimate that the time lost by Sainz from this manoeuvre alone was about three seconds. In this way, Ferrari handed over Carlos’ position to Hamilton who did stop to complete the undercut. Sainz stopped a lap later and came out behind Hamilton by more than 3.4 seconds with a 2.2s pit stop.

Leclerc, by staying on track, was also doomed to lose the position to Hamilton. Therefore, Ferrari extended the second stint of the Monegasque driver just to try to get him ahead of Sainz at the pit stop taking advantage of the time lost by Sainz on lap 27. And here came the second of the big misunderstandings on the Ferrari pit wall.

Riccardo Adami told Sainz ‘not to put Charles under pressure’ when he came out of the pits, as Ferrari expected Leclerc to be ahead. Instead, Bryan Bozzi, Leclerc’s race engineer, mistakenly informed the Monegasque that Sainz ‘wasn’t going to overtake him, but he was going to be very close’.

A message that Bozzi would later clarify when Carlos had already overtook Charles by saying: ‘he has been told not to put you under pressure’, realising that this was indeed the message he should have conveyed to Leclerc before. The only and real message that Sainz actually got from Adami.

Leclerc came out of the pits just slightly ahead of Sainz after a 2.9s pit stop – seven tenths slower than Sainz’s that definitely made the difference – and with a set of new cold hard tyres. Leclerc came out with very little traction and Sainz overtook him without any difficulty as he had his tyres already warmed up and with the DRS activated.

He overtook without putting him under pressure just as he was told. In this way, Leclerc suffered not only the undercut from Hamilton but also an undercut from his teammate.

A teammate who gave him the position on track when he did receive this order and who complied with the only order he received not to put him under pressure. What was Leclerc’s intention? That in addition to lifting his foot off the accelerator because of a very poor call from the team a few laps before, he also had to lift it to let him pass him when he was obviously coming with much more speed on the straight?

If anyone is to blame for this, it’s Ferrari. They could have stopped Leclerc on lap 27 to cover Hamilton’s undercut, sacrificing Sainz with dead tyres and leaving him out on track for another lap.

The fact is that with a Mercedes 1-2 practically confirmed after the last pit stop, Ferrari’s objective was to reach the last place on the podium occupied by Max Verstappen. With fresher tyres and much more pace, the Red Bull driver was not looking to wear out his tyres either, as his aim was to secure his fourth championship by finishing ahead of Lando Norris.

On lap 42, Sainz managed to overtake Verstappen with a good manoeuvre under braking at Turn 5. The Red Bull driver stayed in the Spaniard’s DRS zone for two more laps, which did not help Leclerc to overtake the Dutch driver as well.

But Sainz after reaching the podium position could not risk his tyres to do the same as in the second stint either. If anyone had to risk at that moment it was Leclerc, who also had more pace and a car with a higher top speed than Verstappen.

Finally, the Monegasque driver overtook Verstappen to confirm P3 and P4 for Ferrari. The best result they were aiming for given Mercedes‘ incredible pace coupled with the W15’s better tyre management on both medium and hards.

However, the Italian team made it especially easy for Hamilton to take P2 by not covering the position on lap 27 when Sainz was expected to stop as he was told. They could have put him in more trouble if they had managed the last half of the race in a better way.

Sainz recovered from a very bad start and was the Ferrari driver with the best overall pace in the race.

Sainz did what was asked of him over the radio to help Charles when he could within a competitive logic and took another podium finish without indulging in the submission that many people expect of him both inside and outside the team.

A submission that when he has it is always criticised for lack of competitiveness and when he doesn’t have it it is also criticised because he is considered a bad teammate. It seems that whatever he does, Sainz will never be judged in a positive light unless he has a perfect weekend like he did in Mexico or Australia.

More reaction from the Las Vegas Grand Prix

Las Vegas GP driver ratings: Russell top of the class as Verstappen does what’s necessary

Max Verstappen shuts out the noise to show nice guys finish last

Charles Leclerc took his frustration out on Sainz on the radio claiming he was tired of always being so ‘nice’ or ‘respectful’ to his teammate. But does anyone really believe that Sainz could have done anything different in this race without looking like a ‘puppet’ made solely to serve Leclerc and Ferrari?

And not just in this race. In my opinion, Sainz has been a gentleman and has never hesitated to help his teammate or his team when asked to collaborate in all these four years with Ferrari.

However, in his last races in red, it is logical to think that he will not accept any kind of absurd order if it will also prevent him from achieving podiums or victories. Especially, when the final result for the team that is still in the fight for the Championship would still have been the same.

Leclerc won’t have Sainz at his side next year. Perhaps that’s a relief for him given how angry he is about the Spanish driver finishing ahead of him.

Or who knows, maybe he will be even angrier when it’s not Carlos next to him but Lewis Hamilton in red. And I am convinced, and I think almost all of us agree, that Lewis‘ behaviour will have nothing to do with Carlos’ behaviour over these years as Charles’ teammate in Ferrari.

With all this, Ferrari is now 24 points behind McLaren in the Championship. The Italian team has cut 12 points in a weekend where they were probably hoping for even more.

With only Qatar and Abu Dhabi to go and 103 points at the most at stake, the fight promises to be exciting but Las Vegas was surely the most favourable scenario to make a big difference.

Read next: Las Vegas GP conclusions: Verstappen unbeatable, Hamilton v Leclerc clues, Red Bull warning