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Home Formula 1

F1 Saudi Arabian GP: “How on earth is Xavi still employed?” Tifosi left furious as another Ferrari & Charles Leclerc debacle unfolds

Ferrari fans have been left enraged by another unravelling from them, as Charles Leclerc's season has gone from bad to worse

by Aniket Tripathi
March 20, 2023 / 00:36 GMT
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc

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Charles Leclerc did spectacularly in qualifying for Ferrari at the Saudi Arabian GP and put his car in P2. Of course, he was set for a 10-place grid drop due to a control electronics change – the same part that was to blame for his retirement in Bahrain. The race itself got started swimmingly for him. With him starting on soft tires, he began his charge up the grid.

He had soon made his way up to just being behind his teammate, Carlos Sainz. Unfortunately for the Ferraris, they pit on lap 16 (Sainz) and lap 17 (Leclerc) respectively. Right on the next lap, a full safety car came out as Lance Stroll retired from the race. The frontrunners, including both Mercedes, both Red Bulls, and Alonso, all pitted. Soon, it went from bad to worse.

During all this, Leclerc was told to “push” from safety car one as Lewis Hamilton had pitted, but the message came too late -the Briton had already exited the pits. Over the radio, the Monegasque said: “Xavi [his race engineer], you need to tell me that before!” to which Xavier Marcos Padros replied: “Copy”, and Leclerc retorted: “No, but come on!”

But there were even worse things in store. Hamilton, who had started on the hard tires, shifted to mediums. Sainz, who was just ahead of the seven-time world champion, was on the hards and was a sitting duck. Leclerc caught up to the back of Sainz, who was weaving to try and keep him behind, but soon began losing touch and time. Many wanted team orders to be deployed, but soon, the Monegasque completely lost touch with his teammate. And the fans were left furious.

Read More: ‘A subterfuge attempt to destabilize Ferrari,’ Charles Leclerc slams rumors of Lewis Hamilton swap deal  

Charles Leclerc’s sixth Ferrari season has gone from bad to worse

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc

Carlos Sainz had struggled all weekend, especially in qualifying. Charles Leclerc had been faster all weekend – and he asserted his dominance in qualifying, where he was almost 5 tenths faster than Sainz, who had “big moments” during the session. So many expected team orders to be deployed in Leclerc’s favor so that he could possibly challenge Hamilton, but it didn’t happen. Insult to injury was the fact that Sainz was significantly faster than the drivers ahead.

He couldn’t get closer as he was “losing on the tires”. As if these radio messages between Leclerc and his engineer from earlier was not enough, another radio message from the Monegasque came through when he was behind Sainz: “Being behind like this is really s**t. I don’t know what to do.” Well. to say that the fans were upset – that would be the understatement of all understatements.

📻 | Charles:

“Being behind like this is really shit. I don’t know what to do.”

— Ferrari News 🐎 (@FanaticsFerrari) March 19, 2023

How on earth is xavi still employed

— jan🦦 (@pinsaroulette16) March 19, 2023

get this dude away from charles he’s actually useless

— luke (@showtimeleclerc) March 19, 2023

Xavi is a joke

— Ada (@Ada230223) March 19, 2023

Im so done with xavi

— mza (@marianazamalt) March 19, 2023

The radio communications are getting worse

— Ro (@afoolishracer) March 19, 2023

certified ferrari moment

— Not Paradox (@notparadox0071) March 19, 2023

get xavi out man, so out of his depth

— Lewis 🌶️ (@L3w1s_Nufc55) March 19, 2023

REPUTATION ERA https://t.co/gBMfqK2VWh pic.twitter.com/9iR8LIBUv4

— ana (@f1stargirl) March 19, 2023

And then, there’s the whole ‘team orders’ thing. Last year too, this had been a topic. Perhaps it would have been better for Leclerc’s race if had swapped with Sainz on this occasion, but the opportunity went away quickly as he soon lost touch. And there were other radio messages as well. Safe to say, the Monegasque’s year has not started well – especially because he hopes to win the championship.

📻 | Charles cannot hear anything on the radio.

Xavi asks him to do a radio reset.

— Ferrari News 🐎 (@FanaticsFerrari) March 19, 2023

Charles is fighting demons in the car. I hate this.

— Ro (@afoolishracer) March 19, 2023

Charles has been doing the same time as Carlos man

— Vig⁵⁵ ¹⁰ (@warlos_wainz) March 19, 2023

Idk why they didn’t swap

— Ikram🏁 (@f1ikram) March 19, 2023

I hate this team

— lyan (@Lyanpimpyz) March 19, 2023

WHY DON'T THEY LET HIM THROUGH WHAT IS CARLOS DOING MAN

— nat 🏎 (@nats__04) March 19, 2023

But twitter engineers said they have to swap

— takuma 🦉 (@LanceFalso) March 19, 2023

everything been real quiet

— carlosss (@landosainz55) March 19, 2023

As you can see, it’s divided opinions. But to be fair to both drivers – right now, the package is not good enough. The hard tires were especially bad, and there’s of course the safety car. Without that, both were probably on for much better results, but that’s racing. They’ll have to settle for a P6 and P7 and go again in Australia, where there’s the promise of improvement due to upgrades.

In case you missed it:

  • F1 Saudi Arabian GP: “Red Bull is on another planet,” claims Charles Leclerc after qualifying P2 at Jeddah
  • F1 Saudi Arabian GP: Carlos Sainz thinks he would start the race in P2 if not for a particular problem
Tags: Charles LeclercSaudi Arabia GP
Aniket Tripathi

Aniket Tripathi

Aniket is a Journalism student, and a Ferrari (and Fernando Alonso) fan with much love for Bayern Munich, cinema, music, and literature - and really, all art. Aniket's first exposure to the world of Formula 1 was through social media, though there was not immediate attraction. But after seeing 'Rush' (2013) there was no going back. Apart from F1, he is also an avid watcher of football - the 2014 World Cup had made him fall in love with Thomas Müller and the German national team, which later led him to Bayern Munich. Aniket has been working for FirstSportz for more than 7 months, and has written over 800 articles for the organization. He currently serves as 'Content Head' for the Formula 1 team.

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