New Ferrari data helps expose the true culprit in the war between Leclerc and Sainz

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 outpaced by Mercedes, the race management with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc was also very poor, causing the Monegasque’s brutal anger against his teammate without the Spaniard really being guilty of anything.

How Ferrari pitted Charles Leclerc against Carlos Sainz

Ferrari had marked the race in Las Vegas as the place where it would want to deliver the final blow to McLaren in the battle for the constructors’ world championship.

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

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

During the first few laps, Leclerc pushed hard to attack Russell. He was unsuccessful. For his part, Sainz preferred to maintain the gap with his teammate, taking advantage of Pierre Gasly’s lack of speed to take better care of his tires, which were already showing signs of graininess from the first moments of the race .

From lap 7, Leclerc suffered an abrupt drop in performance when he destroyed his tires trying to overtake Russell. Sainz overtook him on the straight at the start of lap 8. Verstappen did the same with the Monegasque on lap 9 to reach P3.

Russell continued to widen the gap to Sainz to over five seconds on lap 10. Both Ferraris clearly suffered from graining because the Mercedes driver and Verstappen managed the tires better in this first phase of the race.

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

The Spaniard played for Leclerc. But by stopping so early, both Leclerc and Sainz ended up in traffic behind the group of Kevin Magnussen, Valtteri Bottas and Franco Colapinto.

Verstappen, who stopped on lap 12, managed to make an excellent pit stop of just two seconds to get ahead of the Argentinian, who kept Sainz behind him for almost the entire lap, while Verstappen also got rid of Bottas and Magnussen. With the traffic in front of Ferrari cleared, the gap between Verstappen and Sainz was more than three seconds.

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton was in the lead, taking advantage of the clean air to get more out of his medium tires and thus have a tire advantage in the following stints. Something that allowed him to avoid traffic and also emerge from the pits with a lead of just three seconds over both Ferraris and with only Lando Norris in between.

Sainz pushed to close the gap on Verstappen and Hamilton lost to Norris and moved up 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 was lacking with the hard tire, Sainz suffered further graining, as Leclerc did on the first ten laps as he tried to overtake Russell. The drop in performance was not as immediate as with the medium tyre, but the Spaniard clearly held off Leclerc and Hamilton, both of whom clearly had better pace.

On lap 24 Leclerc was still two seconds behind Sainz and within two laps he was in the DRS zone and had enough speed to overtake. In order not to hinder his teammate on the track, Sainz obeyed team orders from the pit wall to let Leclerc through and quickly asked Ferrari to pit him again, knowing that Hamilton’s overtaking action 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: ‘Confirm pit and box’ and just as he was about to pit at the end of lap 27, they canceled the pit stop at the last moment: ‘stay outside, stay outside!’ in true Hamilton and Bono style at the 2018 German Grand Prix, where Lewis was reprimanded for crossing the pit lane white line.

It was not a punishment in that case, just as it was not a punishment for Sainz in Las Vegas because they did not make it to 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 was “not ready” at that moment to make that much-needed second pit stop, even when Carlos had already braked before reaching the pit lane, as we can see in the following graph. .

We estimate that the time Sainz lost due to this maneuver alone was around three seconds. In this way, Ferrari handed Carlos’ position over to Hamilton, who did stop to complete the undercut. Sainz retired one lap later and finished more than 3.4 seconds behind Hamilton with a 2.2 second pit stop.

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

Riccardo Adami told Sainz ‘not to put pressure on Charles’ as he emerged from the pits as Ferrari expected Leclerc to lead the way. Instead, Leclerc’s race engineer Bryan Bozzi incorrectly informed the Monegasque that Sainz ‘would not overtake him, but would be very close’.

A message that Bozzi would later clarify when Carlos had already overtaken Charles by saying: ‘he was told not to put pressure on you’, realizing that this was indeed the message he should have conveyed to Leclerc earlier. The one and only message that Sainz actually received from Adami.

Leclerc came out of the pits just ahead of Sainz after a 2.9 second pit stop – seven tenths slower than Sainz’s which absolutely made the difference – and with a set of new cold, hard tires. Leclerc came out with very little traction and Sainz overtook him without any problems, as his tires were already warmed up and the DRS was activated.

He overtook without putting pressure on him, just as he was instructed. In this way, Leclerc not only had to deal with the undercut from Hamilton, but also from his teammate.

A teammate who gave him the position on the court when he was given this order and who obeyed the only order he was given not to pressure him. What was Leclerc’s intention? That not only did he have to take his foot off the accelerator because of a very bad call from the team a few laps earlier, but also to let him pass when he was clearly coming into the straight with much more speed?

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 tires and leaving him on track for another lap.

The fact is that with a Mercedes 1-2 almost confirmed after the last pit stop, Ferrari’s goal was to reach the last place on Max Verstappen’s podium. With newer tires and much more speed, the Red Bull driver also had no intention of wearing out his tires 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 maneuver while braking in Turn 5. The Red Bull driver stayed in the Spaniard’s DRS zone for another two laps, which did not help Leclerc to overtake the Dutch driver as well .

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

Ultimately, the Monegasque driver overtook Verstappen to confirm P3 and P4 for Ferrari. The best result they were aiming for given Mercedes’ incredible speed combined with the W15’s better tire management on both medium and hard surfaces.

However, the Italian team made it particularly easy for Hamilton to take P2 by not covering the position on lap 27, when Sainz was expected to retire as he had been told. They could have caused him even more trouble if they had driven the last half of the race better.

Sainz recovered from a very poor start to be the Ferrari driver with the best overall pace in the race.

Sainz did what was asked of him on the radio to help Charles when he could within a competitive logic and took another podium place without surrendering to the submission that many people expect from him, both inside and outside the team.

An entry that, if it has it, is always criticized for a lack of competitiveness and if it does not have it, it is also criticized for being 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 in Mexico or Australia.

More reactions from the Las Vegas Grand Prix

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

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

Charles Leclerc expressed his frustration with Sainz on the radio, claiming he was tired of always being so ‘nice’ or ‘respectful’ to his teammate. But does anyone really believe Sainz could have done anything differently in this race without looking like a ‘doll’ created solely to serve Leclerc and Ferrari?

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

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

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

Or who knows, he might get even angrier if it isn’t Carlos next to him, but Lewis Hamilton in red. And I am convinced, and I think we almost all agree, that Lewis’ behavior will have nothing to do with Carlos’ behavior in recent years as Charles’ teammate at Ferrari.

With all this, Ferrari is now 24 points behind McLaren in the championship. The Italian team has lost twelve points on a weekend where they probably hoped for even more.

With Qatar and Abu Dhabi still to go and a maximum of 103 points at stake, the battle promises to be exciting, but Las Vegas was certainly the most favorable scenario to make a big difference.

Read the following: Conclusions GP of Las Vegas: Verstappen unbeatable, instructions Hamilton against Leclerc, warning Red Bull