General
Vasseur on discussion Leclerc and Xavi: 'True, we did something wrong'
- GPblog.com
Last season, we heard some multiple noteworthy conversations between Charles Leclerc and his race engineer Xavi Marcos Padros over the board radio and at the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, this has continued. Leclerc was obviously not happy with Xavi, but Frederic Vasseur does not think too much attention should be paid to the 'incident'.
The Ferrari driver was told too late from the safety car line to press the accelerator a little deeper, as Lewis Hamilton was making a pit stop at the time. The Monegasque had a chance to overtake the seven-time World Champion, but ultimately failed to do so. It led to dissatisfaction from Leclerc: "Xaxi, you should tell me earlier!"
Vasseur caught all the communication and agreed that something went wrong somewhere. Yet the Ferrari team boss downplays it a bit at Sky. "It's true, we did something wrong at that moment, but it is what it is now. I think it would be wrong to focus on something like that at the moment. I don't want to go into details, but it was actually a misunderstanding and we will definitely take it [to the next races]. But this moment is definitely not the most important thing I'm focusing on right now."
Leclerc eventually finished seventh at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. Teammate Carlos Sainz did just a little better with sixth place. With six points from two Grands Prix, the 23-year-old Leclerc is currently eighth in the world championship. The gap to Max Verstappen, in first place, is already 38 points.