Carlos Sainz produced arguably his best-ever F1 performance this past weekend to clinch his second F1 victory at the Singapore Grand Prix. His performance had a bit of everything. At first, he managed the tires extremely well in his first stint by controlling the pace. Then, he maintained the lead after the first round of pit stops and brilliantly tackled the roll of the dice that Mercedes threw right at the end by pitting for fresher tires. While the Spaniard’s performance undoubtedly included immense grit and intelligence, his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc also attempted to aid him in the best way he could. However, the timing of the safety car ruined the Monegasque’s moment to be the perfect teammate to ensure that Ferrari won their first race of the 2023 season.
As a result of the safety car, Leclerc ended up falling to fifth position. The 25-year-old’s fifth-place finish means that he has now fallen behind Sainz by 19 points in the championship. However, as a team, Ferrari has managed to reduce second-placed Mercedes’ advantage in the Constructors’ Championship to just 24 points.
Charles Leclerc was keen to help Carlos Sainz win for Ferrari
In his post-race interview, Charles Leclerc explained how he did the best he could to ensure that Ferrari managed to register a victory in the 2023 season. The Monegasque stated that since he was not in a position to do so himself, he did everything in his potential to help teammate Carlos Sainz do the same.
As quoted by Charles Leclerc’s 16 Fan page’s handle, the 25-year-old said, “I knew it was going to be difficult (to win myself). I changed the choice of tires with a soft one this morning to try to do exactly what we did. Take P2 from the start and then try to slow down the others so that Carlos leads, and then I can stop before Carlos without him being undercut“.
After stating the same, Leclerc explained how the safety car ruined his moment to be a good teammate. He believes that as a result of the safety car, they all ended up stopping at the same time. He added that the resulting traffic in the pits then meant that he ended up coming out in fifth and could no longer help Sainz protect his lead in the race.
However, with Sainz managing to win anyway, the Monegasque concluded his remarks by praising his teammate. Leclerc then made it clear that he hopes to come back with a better performance later this weekend at Suzuka for the Japanese Grand Prix.
Even though Ferrari failed to get the 1-2 they craved, Leclerc and Sainz did work extremely well as a team. In the process, they seemingly also suggested that there is no rift between the two despite all the reports that have emerged in the past few weeks after a nervy ending to the Italian Grand Prix.
Sainz’s mother triggered a huge controversy
With Charles Leclerc pushing Carlos Sainz right towards the end for the final podium place at Ferrari’s home race at Monza, the Spaniard’s family was far from happy. While Sainz sr. wanted his son to seek accountability for the team, his mother triggered a massive controversy on social media.
Sainz’s mother took to social media and liked posts that mentioned that Leclerc is not honorable. Several fans had pointed out on social media about how the Monegasque was selfish and was not a good teammate. Although Leclerc’s choice to race hard against Sainz did not please some, it did produce a spectacle for the fans.
