Carlos Sainz insists that he and Charles Leclerc and the rest of the Ferrari team have “turned the page” on a frustrating Las Vegas GP.
The team had a messy race as the two drivers swapped positions several times and Leclerc was left furious by the end of the race after Sainz finished in front.
There were also communication issues that led to Sainz losing time when asked to stay out just as he was heading for the pitlane.
The Spaniard insists that everything has now been resolved in the Maranello camp.
“No one was happy with the outcome of that race,” said Sainz when asked by AutoRacer.it about the fallout.
“I think that one of the predominant reasons is that we were just not fast enough to win that race. And we thought before Saturday, that we could actually win it, and probably all that disappointment or that frustration started to build through the race, and we didn’t execute our best weekend.
“At the same time, even without having executed our best race, we couldn’t have finished better than third and fourth, and we still finish third and fourth, and we can put that behind us.
“We’ve learned our lessons. We’ve learned that there were mistakes done all around. We had our discussions, internal discussions, and we managed to do a good job to conclude and to turn the page, which I think is always important.”
Sainz says its inevitable that there are regular issues with Leclerc, but they always get resolved.
“It always happens with us,” he said. “We go through some misunderstandings that in the heat of the moment, we obviously are quite vocal about, and we feel very frustrated about.
“And after a couple of days have gone by, and you can see everything with a bit more perspective, relativise everything a bit more and give yourself a bit of time to analyse things and to conclude what happens, and you realise when you talk through things, you can actually understand them, and put them behind, and that’s the exercise that we’ve been having to do for four years.
“Because we’re always sharing the same piece of tarmac and we’re always fighting each other on track because we’re driving the same car, and we are equally on pace, and we’ve gone through this so often that we know how to talk and then move on from it.”
Sainz insisted that his friendship with Leclerc is genuine.
“I keep seeing sometimes in social media that people believe it’s not true, and it’s all PR,” he said. “And then, honestly, it disappoints me, because people cannot sometimes understand that we have a professional relationship, and in that professional relationship, we go through ups and downs, and as competitive as we are, we always going to have some issues on track.
“Because again, if he would be P1 and I would be P8 or vice versa, we would never have issues. But unfortunately, or let’s say fortunately, for the team, we’re always in the same point at the track and we’re having our little issues here and there.
“But then we also have a personal relationship, and as much as the professional one goes through ups and downs, the personal one, I can tell you, it’s always been really, really good.
“It’s one of those guys that I know in the future, when I’m not in F1, I’ll look back and say, I’m glad I met him, and I’m glad I raced with him, and I’m glad I can have a lot of good memories with him.
“And in these four years in Ferrari, I’ve enjoyed every single moment with him, even the tough ones, as much as they’ve been tough. I’m pretty sure in 20-30, years, I’ll laugh about them, and look back with being proud of what we’ve achieved together.”
