There is quite some irony in Ferrari’s operations. Charles Leclerc, whom Frederic Vasseur decided to retain over Carlos Sainz, has consistently outperformed. Back in the Australian GP, the Monegasque was asked not to fight his teammate for the win, which he complied with. Today, during the Japanese GP also, Charles Leclerc has once again received team orders that will not help his case.

In Australia, however, the fight between the Ferraris was for the win. But in Japan, the fight was for the podium place behind the Red Bulls. But here, it was McLaren’s surprise package that was en route to Block P3. Lando Norris, who out-qualified his buddy Carlos Sainz, was still in the fight to retain that position.

In Lap 36 of the race, both Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris went into the pits for a tire change. Leclerc, who was in P4, came out in the same position, behind his teammate Sainz. But to everyone’s surprise, the team orders strictly prohibited him from battling Sainz. “Our fight is with Russell and Norris behind,” his race engineer, Xavier Marcos Padros, said on the team radio.

On the contrary, nearing the end of the race, Carlos Sainz was celebrated by his race engineer, “One more to the podium,” while Charles Leclerc was indirectly asked not to waste time for P3, considering his fight with Lando Norris behind, gunning for P4. This marks the second instance of similar team orders for Leclerc, including the one in Melbourne. Surprisingly, this wasn’t the first instance of team orders at Suzuka that he had to settle to agree with.

Did Charles Leclerc just tussle with his race engineer on Ferrari’s team radio?

In the first half of the race, when Charles Leclerc was on the mediums, everything was going well until Ferrari unexpectedly decided to switch their strategy. “We believe plan B is best option, but with plan A tyres,” Xavi told Leclerc. To which a helpless Leclerc had only 1 thing to say: “Why?”

The answer to his question lies in a data analysis of their rival Mercedes’ performance. “Hard seems to be poorer than expected on Mercedes,” his engineer replied.

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But the Monegasque couldn’t agree with why they needed to change their perfectly working strategy just because Mercedes signaled something else. “But our pace looks good now, no?” asked Leclerc. To this, Xavi replied, “If we want to use plan C, we cannot lose time with Verstappen and Norris behind.”

A radio silence followed after that. On one side, fans thought the driver of the day would get preference considering his long-term contract; Ferrari had a different strategy in place, and not to forget Carlos Sainz’s performances demanded otherwise. However, it’ll be interesting to know what Leclerc has to say about today’s race. Stay tuned.

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