Feuding Ferrari drivers insist no repeat of Sochi
Suzuka (Japan), Oct. 10: Squabbling teammates Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc on Thursday insisted “everything is clear now” with Ferrari team orders after their Russian Grand Prix debacle.
The Scuderia saw their race in Sochi fall apart handing Mercedes a onetwo after a pre-arranged plan for Leclerc, who started from pole position, to “tow” Vettel into the lead unravelled when the German refused to give back the place before retiring with a mechanical problem.
Leclerc told reporters in Suzuka ahead of the weekend’s typhoonthreatened Japanese Grand Prix that team principal Mattia Binotto
had held talks with both drivers to iron out a “misunderstanding”.
“Yeah, obviously there was some misunderstanding from the car but I think we’ve had a discussion and everything is clear now,” said Leclerc.
“Obviously it felt like it was a huge deal from the outside, which it definitely wasn’t, but yeah, now everything is fine.”
Vettel disobeyed team orders in Russia and Leclerc seemed to have a dig at his teammate before trying, cryptically, to wriggle out of it.
“I think that’s clear from the beginning of the season, we need to obey team orders. So we spoke about it and we’ll make sure that this situation doesn’t happen again in the future,” said the Monegasque.
Vettel agreed with his teammate that relations between them and the team had been resolved but admitted: “There are certain things we could have done better.”
“We spoke about it obviously, more than once.”