Last laps of Brazilian Grand Prix. George Russellescorted by Lewis Hamilton, lines his first victory in Formula 1 with Carlos Sainz completing the podium… but on the radio of ferrari there is a request.
charles leclercfourth behind the player from Madrid, asks the team to let him overtake in order to score more points in his personal battle with ‘Czech’ Perez for being second in the World Cup.
In fact, the Mexican pilot himself asked the same thing to Red Bullbut this time it was Max Verstappen who by way of revenge he ignored the requests from the wall.
Well, from the box of ferrari They didn’t even demand Sainz to let Leclerc through because of a “dangerous” factor: the presence of Fernando Alonso just over a second from Monegasque.
In the end, everyone kept their positions and, after the race, Mattia Binottoboss of the ‘Scuderia’, acknowledged that the Asturian was the “reason” why they did not ask for the change: “Yes, that was the reason.”
“In the beginning, changing the two cars on the last straight was difficult, because Charles [Leclerc] I had Fernando [Alonso] already Max [Verstappen] just behind, so it would have been difficult, and somehow dangerous“, he explained in statements collected by ‘Motorsport’.
“Also, we knew we were being investigated because of what happened behind the safety car with Tsunoda. Race control cleared it up for us at the time, so we were quite, shall we say, comfortable, but without having a conclusion on that matter, it would have been riskybecause five seconds of penalty, for example, would mean that then Carlos [Sainz] I would have lost more than one position,” he added.
In fact, after getting off the car, Sainz stated that he had not received any order: “Nothing has come to me on the radio, in fact I just found out now when they told me“.
After Brazil, Ferrari leads Mercedes in 19 points in the Constructors’ World Championship, an optimal difference for Abu Dhabi: “Therefore, for the constructors’ championship, without a doubt, it was better to maintain the positions and the differences on the track”.