Charles Leclerc still trusts Sebastian Vettel after Russian GP Ferrari team orders defiance

Charles Leclerc

Leclerc still trusts Vettel after team orders defiance

Should he?

Matthew Scott

Monday 30 September 2019 10:00

Charles Leclerc says his trust in Sebastian Vettel has not been shaken by his team-mate refusing to follow team orders during the Russian Grand Prix.

Ferrari concocted a plan to help Vettel jump Lewis Hamilton at the start of the Sochi race, slipstreaming the pole-sitting Leclerc to jump from third place to first at Turn 2.

Leclerc was soon on team radio, requesting to be let through by Vettel, who said he would not do so unless Leclerc could catch up, with Hamilton lurking behind in P3.

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Ferrari eventually took matters into their own hands to a degree, giving Leclerc four laps on fresh tyres to undercut Vettel, who promptly retired with an MGU-K failure.

Despite his mid-race frustrations, Leclerc says he will be happy to rely on Vettel again in similar future scenarios.

"I think the trust doesn't change and we need to trust each other, Seb and myself," Leclerc said.

"I think it's usually important for the benefit of the team in some situations to know that you can count on the other car, and vice versa – I mean in both ways.

"I think it's very important but yes, the trust is still here."

Similarly, Leclerc said he was always confident that Ferrari would try to engineer him back into the lead of the race – a move which ultimately fell flat as Vettel's stoppage sparked a VSC period, which allowed Hamilton to pit and retain the lead of the race.

Leclerc said: "At the start, obviously I went to the left to give Seb the slipstream. I knew he would overtake. We knew that.

As I said on the radio, I had one hundred per cent trust in the team to do it [the swap] themselves, as it was agreed before the race, and that's what they did at the pitstop."