Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton will be team-mates at Ferrari next year (Image: Getty)
ought to be concerned about antics following the last month. The seven-time world champion, who will partner Leclerc at next year, clinched an impressive second-place finish in Nevada despite starting in eighth on the grid, with the Brit’s team-mate finishing in first to make it a one-two for the team.
Leclerc, meanwhile, narrowly missed out on a podium place after being pipped to third spot by soon-to-be ex- colleague , who undercut the Monegasque driver at the final pit stop. After the race, Leclerc fumed over the team radio that he was sick of being “the nice guy”, in an apparent reference to the fact that Sainz was allowed to round him into third.
“I did my job but being nice f***s me over all the f***ing time, all the f***ing time,” Leclerc was heard saying. Reacting, journalist and former team manager Peter Windsor said Leclerc’s outburst was a “bad sign”, and urged the 27-year-old to ignore all external noise and focus exclusively on his driving.
“Already there’s a bad sign, because within the rant he said something like: ‘I’m fed up with being the nice guy’ or something like that. That isn’t his problem”, Windsor, 72, said on the .
“His problem is thinking about it and being aware of it. It’s not being the nice guy, because the opposite is: ‘Oh I’m going to be the bad guy now.’ That’s not the solution.
“The solution is to be the guy who isn’t a guy. He’s just a racing driver and nothing else like , and not to listen to the press, not to read anything that’s written about him. Not to get onto social media, not to have a profile, just be a racing driver. He can do all that other stuff when he retires.”
Charles Leclerc says he’s tired of being “the nice guy” (Image: Getty)
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Leclerc’s words should serve as an ominous warning for Hamilton, who has a history of heated rivalries with team-mates. The 39-year-old infamously fell out with childhood friend Nico Rosberg while the pair battled it out for the world title at , and he had a similarly-frosty relationship with Fernando Alonso while partnering the Spaniard during his rookie season in F1.
In Qatar on Sunday, Leclerc managed a second-place finish behind Verstappen, who secured his fourth-successive F1 title in Las Vegas. Sainz ended the race in sixth place, while duo and Oscar Piastri finished 10th and third respectively. It leaves 21 points ahead of heading into the final Grand Prix of the season.
With 44 points still available, need to score at least 22 more points than to land their first Constructors’ Championship since 2008. , meanwhile, haven’t won the title since 1998, back when David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen were driving for them.
Lewis Hamilton has a history of tense relationships with F1 team-mates (Image: Getty)
In the Drivers’ Championship, Leclerc is aiming to overtake Norris to clinch second place and equal his career-best finish from 2022. With only an eight-point gap separating him from the Brit, Leclerc has reason to be optimistic.
He has consistently outperformed Norris in recent weeks, finishing ahead of him in the last three races and six of the last eight. Elsewhere, Hamilton and Russell are set to duke it out for sixth place, while Sainz and Piastri are battling it out over fourth spot.