Charles Leclerc: Ferrari didn't make Sebastian Vettel orders clear

Charles Leclerc

Leclerc: Ferrari didn't make Vettel orders clear

Sochi still in his mind.

Matthew Scott

Thursday 10 October 2019 10:00

Charles Leclerc is satisfied that Ferrari's team orders controversy from the Russian Grand Prix is now sorted, but has said that he and Sebastian Vettel were not on the same page from the off in Sochi.

Leclerc took pole in Sochi, his fourth Saturday success in a row, but Vettel made the most of the long run to Turn 2 and slipstreamed his way into the lead from P3 on the grid.

Ferrari then tried to make Vettel give the lead back to Leclerc, and had to engineer the swap in the pit-stops before the German suffered a mechanical fault and the team's race unravelled, with Lewis Hamilton going on to lead a Mercedes one-two.

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Leclerc's radio channel was busy during the race as he bickered with Ferrari, but he says he has realised the issue was not as serious as he thought at the time.

"Obviously there was some misunderstanding from the car but I think we've had a discussion and everything is clear now," Leclerc said.

"Obviously it felt like it was a huge deal from the outside – which it definitely wasn't – but yeah, now everything is fine.

"I think that's clear from the beginning of the season, we need to obey team orders and what is clear is that the situation wasn't clear for both of the drivers, starting the race, and I think that's the most important [thing].

"So we spoke about it and we'll make sure that this situation doesn't happen again in the future."

Ferrari released a statement after the race to say Vettel had visited Maranello for talks with mattia Binotto, and Leclerc said he also spoke to the team principal.

"Unfortunately I had some things happening on the day he [Vettel] was in Maranello, so we didn't have the chance to meet-up together," Leclerc said.

"But I had a meeting with Mattia and he had one with Seb the day earlier. Yeah, everything is fine, as I've said."