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Charles Leclerc was not left feeling frustrated after he was ordered to stay behind teammate Sebastian Vettel during the Australian Grand Prix.
Leclerc started the race from fifth place, and found himself running in the same position throughout his Ferrari debut.
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The Maranello squad opted to pit Vettel earlier than expected in an attempt to close up on the Mercedes' in front. However, Vettel was overtaken by Red Bull's Max Verstappen and towards the end of the race, found himself being caught by Leclerc.
Ferrari instructed Leclerc over the team radio to stay behind Vettel, to which Leclerc obliged. Despite team principal Mattia Binotto previously saying that the two are free to race in 2019, the Monegasque driver revealed he is not feeling frustrated over the incident.
“There was no frustration on my side,” said Leclerc. “Obviously, it was the first race, but on the team side I don’t think there was anything to gain from me being fourth and Seb fifth, or me fifth and Seb fourth.
“It was exactly the same amount of points for the team, so it’s understandable that they didn’t want us to take the risk by fighting each other and risk losing more points.”
Ferrari, who couldn't compete with rivals Mercedes during the weekend in Melbourne, is confident that implemented corrections will make it stronger this time around in Bahrain.
Leclerc says that Albert Park in Melbourne does not offer true insight into how the pecking order will shape up for the season ahead.
"We expect to be more competitive," Leclerc affirmed. "I think our package is strong. We have some answers to the lack of performance in Melbourne. I don’t think we have all of them, but we definitely have some answers.
“Melbourne is not such a representative track for car performance, even though it shows we’re not as strong as we want to be. There’s a lot of work to do, and I’m pretty confident that the team have done the right job in between Melbourne and here to try and improve.
“We’ll see this weekend if it’s track-specific or if it’s something else, but I’m pretty confident in the package we have.”
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C. Sainz jr
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Replies (3)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
That's almost even more frustrating to us than the team orders themselves. I get why Lec as a new driver wouldn't wanna cause too much of a ruckus and go against the team orders, but I'd respect him all the more if he did. What Max did way back when with Sainz proved that you can more or less get away with not following team orders. Be a dragon, Leclerc. Let Vettel stay ahead if he is faster, but if he isn't, swallow him whole, pornstache and all.
Ram Samartha
Posts: 1,172
Really it was kind of a non-event. He seemed very level headed in that interview with Buxton.
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
This is painful. I told you @Calle Ferrari can't do it any other way. Leclerc is a special talent, I hope that he either starts disobeying soon, or leaves, before Ferrari does to him what they did to Irvine, Massa, and Raikkonen