These are strange days we are experiencing. We come from two weekends in which the Ferrari she came back to win, first with Sainz a Silverstone and then with the latest success of Leclerc in Austria. But in both cases this victory didn't exactly come in a "clean" way. Already because the Red, on both occasions had to chew a bitter pill. At Silverstone Sainz's first win came between controversy for a sad 4th place obtained by Leclerc, the man on whom everyone, except Ferrari evidently, would aim to fight for the World Championship. In Austria, Leclerc's victory came amid general discontent for the out of Sainz a few laps from the end. If in the rest of the world there is only bitterness for the missed opportunity, in Spain these problems are thought to reliability are not random, but signals of a real conspiracy against the Spanish rider.
The first fights
The battle between the two riders of the Red Team ignited at Silverstone, a couple of weeks ago. The fact that the Ferrari has never decided on a hierarchy between Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz he kept every possible scenario open. So on the first occasion that the two were really close the team decided to let them fight on the track, which reunited the group behind them and compromised Leclerc's race, also disadvantaged by the entry of a Safety Car in the final laps. The bad one strategy of the wall of the Red who did not call him to the pits to change the tires took away the possibility of the Monegasque to even get the podium, after a superb race by the Monegasque. Carlos's victory obviously took a back seat and the wave of hatred for the Spanish rider spread like wildfire.
In Austria the struggle continues
A week later the mood was still the same. And since Saturday the two have shown once again that they can be very close. The points gap between the two had narrowed after Silverstone in such a way as to make him say so Mattia binotto that both could have fought with weapons it seems. And so it happened, so much so as to immediately rekindle the controversy and invoke memories of the past in the minds of Ferraristi with the fratricidal Vettel-Leclerc clashes, one of the most recent in Austria 2020, among other things. The tension at the start of the Grand Prix of 'Austria was really high but everything up to the last laps went smoothly. No internal struggle, also because Charles had a fairly discreet gap with the Spaniard who was dealing with an attack on Verstappen. In short, everything went well, until Sainz retired, due to an engine problem on his F1-75 devoured by flames. A fact that according to the Spanish press, in particular according to the famous national newspaper "Brand"would not be "accidental".
Tinhere at Ferrari
It is not the first time that the newspaper has fueled hatred between the two Prancing Horse riders. Already at Baku Brand he had contested the Pole obtained by Leclerc, underlining that it had only come because Sainz is a "too honest" driver. A few weeks later the Spanish newspaper is back on the attack but this time pointing the finger at the entire management of Ferrari, accused of hijacking quite obviously the weekend in favor of Leclerc, making accusations that are absurd. One of these accusations would concern Sainz's premeditated withdrawal to stop the Spaniard and prevent the fight between the two from being rekindled. FormulaPassion translated and reported the words of the Spanish journalist Charles Michael, dating back to 12 July 2022.
"Two hours before the race, an expert Italian journalist half-jokingly told me a disturbing sentence: “Ferrari wins today. This is what the world championship needs. As if there were a button available to Domenicali to reopen the world championship". Someone explain to me what the hell happened to Max Verstappen's Red Bull between Saturday and Sunday, it looks like witchcraft. In the Sprint he held up quite well for 24 laps on the medium tyres, in the GP he didn't go well with any compound and Leclerc overtook him as if he didn't exist."
ISainz engine
“It is also part of the mysteries that Sainz's engine catches fire just when the atmosphere between the two Ferrari drivers is more tense than ever. Leclerc smiled, until he saw Carlos corner him. Then he frowns, goes to dinner with Binotto, takes his manager Nicolas Todt with him, with all the media ramifications that follow. The press, more influenced than influential, which goes into revolt despite the team's well-deserved triumph. Carlos had a car that lost between two and three tenths in the second part of the race at Silverstone, but he never lost sight of victory […].
The gap between the two increases and the team is calm
“The 26 points lost compared to his teammate at the Red Bull Ring make team orders seem ready to start from September. But in reality they have already left. In fact, on Saturday evening Carlos became the bad guy, because he attacked Leclerc, who wasn't very fast in the Sprint. In the GP then, Maranello decided on different strategies for its drivers right up to the first stop. Charles had to act as a hare, Sainz had to manage the tires instead. AND they could not fight each other. Sainz made two pit stops with tires in perfect condition, just when he was free to push and with the hard tires he was doing better times than his partner, he was called to the pits. 'monsieur' (Leclerc, ed) on Sunday it was no faster. The certainty that Carlos couldn't win, after the success at Silverstone, was the most tangible thing on Sunday. […].”
Declaration source: FormulaPassion
