Charles Leclerc’s explosive Las Vegas GP outburst: what sparked his Ferrari fury?

Ferrari’s 2024 Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix, which was marked by graining issues but still resulted in a podium finish, became overshadowed by post-race frustration from one of its drivers, Charles Leclerc. Following the event, the Monegasque driver openly expressed his discontent, revealing that he felt certain internal agreements within the team had not been upheld.

Charles Leclerc, who crossed the line just over two seconds behind his teammate Carlos Sainz, who secured third place, had experienced multiple position changes between them throughout the race. After the chequered flag, Charles Leclerc unleashed his frustration in a heated outburst, which race engineer Bryan Bozzi tried, but ultimately failed, to interrupt.

Bozzi: Charles, you did your job… okay, thank you.

Leclerc: Yeah. Yeah-yeah. Yeah, I did my job, but, uh… being nice f***s me over all the f***ing time. All the f***ing time. It’s not even being nice, it’s just being respectful, I know I need to-

Bozzi: Charles.

Leclerc: -shut up, but at one point it’s always the same. Oh my f***ing God.

Bozzi: Okay. But anyway, you did the right thing for the team.

Bryan Bozzi then reiterated his instructions to Charles Leclerc to focus on picking up rubber, to which he received a response that was both sarcastic and frustrated: “yeah-yeah, f*ing pick up what the fk you want.” While this reply seemed to reflect Charles Leclerc’s irritation, it may not have been intended as a public message. Shortly after, Leclerc apologized for having left his radio on and quickly changed the subject, inquiring about McLaren’s performance and George Russell’s race-winning margin.

However, Charles Leclerc’s comments after the race made it clear that there was an underlying issue, though its specifics remained unclear at the time.

Both Ferrari cars struggled with significant tyre graining during the first stint on the medium tyres, caused by their aggressive pursuit of Russell, who had managed to keep them behind despite their attempts to pass. Leclerc had willingly allowed Carlos Sainz to overtake him during this phase, as his own pace was poor, but the Spaniard soon faced the same tyre degradation and lost performance.

In what he thought was an act of team support, Leclerc sacrificed his position, only for Carlos Sainz to experience a similar drop-off in performance, allowing the Monegasque driver to reclaim his spot just before the second pit stops. Carlos Sainz then made his pit stop, but Ferrari was not fully prepared, forcing him to take an extra lap and eventually undercut Leclerc by three laps.

When Charles Leclerc exited the pit lane after his second stop on lap 31, Ferrari informed him that it would be “really close” with Carlos Sainz, who was now on fresher, properly heated tyres. Ferrari also told Leclerc twice that Carlos Sainz had been instructed not to overtake or put Leclerc under pressure, allowing Leclerc to focus on managing his tyres. Despite these orders, the future Williams driver passed Charles Leclerc at the next corner.

Charles Leclerc, visibly displeased, sarcastically suggested that Ferrari “maybe try in Spanish” before following Carlos Sainz to the finish line.

Though Charles Leclerc did not directly address his frustration in interviews with the written press, Sky Sports pressed him on the matter, prompting further discussion.

“Just a little bit [of frustration],” he admitted – “It’s ok. Every time there is this kind of frustration there is not the background for everybody and there is no need for me to go into any details of everything that’s discussed so I won’t go further into that discussion. Frustrating, yes, but it doesn’t change anything for the team. It’s frustrating for the drivers’ [championship], a second place is always nice, but at the end of the day it’s ok.”

The current standings in the drivers’ championship show Charles Leclerc trailing Lando Norris by 21 points, placing him in the highest achievable position now that Max Verstappen has already secured the 2024 title. Meanwhile, in the constructors’ championship, Ferrari is locked in a battle with McLaren, having narrowed the gap to just 24 points after the Las Vegas Grand Prix, with only two races remaining in the season.

Charles Leclerc’s responses, including those made during an interview with Sky Sports Italy, suggested that his frustration wasn’t solely about the specific instruction given to Carlos Sainz, but possibly related to a broader pre-race agreement. However, Ferrari has not provided any clarity on the details of this supposed arrangement.

When asked about Leclerc’s dissatisfaction, Carlos Sainz, who will be leaving Ferrari at the end of the season, made it clear that he believed no one at Ferrari was happy with how the race had been handled. One of his key points of frustration was the team’s failure to be ready for his second pit stop, but equally vexing for him was the fact that he had been urging the team to call him in during the laps leading up to the stop, only to be ignored.

“I think he grained the medium tyres and I managed to get ahead before the pitstop on mediums. Then I did grain my hards, he [Leclerc] was coming quick behind me, and me anticipating what it was going to be, a situation – because Lewis [Hamilton] was straight behind Charles at the time, and I was pretty sure the team was going to ask me to let Charles by, because he was quicker at the time, as I was on grained tyres. I asked the team two or three times to box me, to get me out of the way, and get me a new set of hards to make sure I wasn’t losing a lot of race time by having to let Charles by and then having to fight Lewis at the same time. For some reason we didn’t box. I ended up having to let Charles by a lap later, and losing a lot of race time. And by the time I was going to box we didn’t even box.” – the Spanish driver explained at the end of the Las Vegas Grand Prix – “So… I guess he’s not happy but I’m also not happy by the way things were handled at the time. And yeah, I think no one’s happy today in the team because we all expected a bit more. I am on the podium so at least I got that for the team, but at the same time I don’t think we could’ve finished much better than P3 and P4 today.” – he pointed out.

Frederic Vasseur, on his part, recognized that Charles Leclerc might be frustrated with the situation where he was told that Carlos Sainz would not put him under pressure, only to have Carlos Sainz overtake him moments later. However, he emphasized that the real issue stemmed from the overall difficulty of the situation, which affected everyone involved. The French manager reassured that the matter would be discussed that evening, adding that it would not escalate into a problem.

He said he was “not worried at all” about any suggestion Leclerc may be less of a team player going forward: “I think again, it’s always the same story. That they have to make comments – or they don’t have to make comments, but they’re doing comments – in the lap, and they don’t have always the full picture. We will discuss together and it won’t be an issue.” – the Ferrari team principal concluded.

— see video above —