Ferrari F1 driver, Carlos Sainz, enjoyed a blistering qualifying session at Le-Castellet, having slotted himself in P5 behind the Mercedes and Red Bull drivers.

However, more than his starting position, something strange happened following the session that grabbed everyone’s attention. A while after the Spaniard walked away from parc ferme, there was a conversation still going on over Sainz’s radio channel.

This raised a lot of questions considering he wasn’t even in the car, neither were the crew in the pit wall. So where was this noise coming from?

Well, following an investigation, the truth is it wasn’t Sainz who was communicating with his team. It was rather an F3 team communicating with one of its drivers, although unclear who it actually was.

What was the reason?

Sainz’s radio channel sprung up to life a while after he exited the car and walked to his garage. There could have been a number of reasons why this could have occurred.

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However, amidst a lot of assumptions, the truth is that Sainz apparently forgot to turn off his dash, which left his radio frequency channel open.

Unaware it was that of Ferrari’s, an F3 team (possibly Trident) infiltrated the channel to communicate with their driver (possibly, Jack Doohan).

The communication did not stop between the two even as the Ferrari was pushed towards the start of the pit lane for a regular FIA check. These radio messages may have happened over race 2, which took place right after the F1 qualifying session.

Why did Ferrari Sign Carlos Sainz?

Is this the first time the Ferrari radio was infiltrated?

The answer is no. This isn’t necessarily the first time Ferrari have found themselves in such a position. Back in 2020, Charles Leclerc claimed that he heard Lewis Hamilton’s voice on his radio channel.

During the third practice session at the Portuguese Grand Prix, the Monegasque reported to his race engineer that he was hearing Hamilton communicating with his engineer.

“Why am I hearing the radio of others? I was hearing Hamilton on the radio. Now I’m hearing an engineer or someone,” he said.

Overall, this is turning out to be a regular phenomenon for Ferrari, considering this happens quite frequently. Hence, will the Maranello outfit ever find a way to resolve this unusual issue?

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