Carlos Sainz has said the off-track relationship between himself and Charles Leclerc remains “really good”, following on-track tension in Las Vegas.

Leclerc had complained at Sainz not moving aside for him under team orders at the last race, while Sainz expressed frustration at the result under the lights of Las Vegas.

Carlos Sainz: Ferrari duo ‘turn the page’ after Las Vegas Grand Prix

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Leclerc had launched into a self-flagellating radio critique after the race, swearing at himself over team radio after crossing the line behind Sainz in Las Vegas, while the Spanish driver commented afterwards that “I don’t like using the radio to complain or to do anything.”

The drivers got close on track, but Sainz confirmed the team have now held talks behind closed doors to move on for their final two races as team-mates.

The 30-year-old added the two remain friendly away from the circuit, and said it “disappoints me” to see people who do not believe their off-track friendship is genuine.

“As I said, no-one was happy with the outcome of that race,” Sainz told media including PlanetF1.com in Qatar when discussing the last round in Las Vegas.

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“I think that one of the predominant reasons is that we were just not fast enough to win that race, and we thought before Saturday that we could actually win it.

“We’ve learned our lessons. We’ve learned that there were mistakes done all around, and we had our discussions, internal discussions, and we managed to do a good job to conclude and to turn the page, which I think is always important.”

When it was put to him that he and Leclerc do not need long to assess a situation between the two of them, Sainz replied: “I fully agree, it always happens with us.

“We go through some misunderstandings that in the heat of the moment we obviously are quite vocal about, and we feel very frustrated about, and after a couple of days have gone by, and you can see everything with a bit more perspective, relativise everything a bit more and give yourself a bit of time to analyse things and to conclude what happens.

“You realise that when you talk through things, you can actually understand them, and put them behind – and that’s the exercise that we’ve been having to do for four years, because we’re always sharing the same piece of tarmac and we’re always fighting each other on track because we’re driving the same car and we are equally on pace.

“We’ve gone through this so often that we know how to talk and then move on from it.”

Given the Ferrari duo have grown close away from the track, Sainz voiced his disdain for those in the online sphere who believe their friendship is not genuine – offering an explanation for the separation between the on and off-track relationships between the two of them.

“I honestly keep seeing sometimes in social media that people believe it’s not true, and it’s all PR, and then, honestly, it disappoints me,” Sainz said of certain online discourse around the Ferrari pair, “because people cannot sometimes understand that we have a professional relationship, and in that professional relationship, we go through ups and downs.

“And as competitive as we are, we’re always going to have some issues on track.

“Because again, if he would be P1 and I would be P8 or vice versa, we would never have issues. But unfortunately, or let’s say fortunately for the team, we’re always in the same point at the track, and we’re having our little issues here and there.

“But then we also have a personal relationship, and as much as the professional one goes through ups and downs, the personal one, I can tell you, it’s always been really, really good.

“He’s one of those guys that I know in the future, when I’m not in Formula 1, I’ll look back and say, ‘I’m glad I met him, and I’m glad I’ve raced with him, and I’m glad I can have a lot of good memories with him.’

“And in these four years in Ferrari, I’ve enjoyed every single moment with him, even the tough ones.

“As much as they’ve been tough, I’m pretty sure in 20, 30, years, I’ll laugh about them and look back with being proud of what we’ve achieved together.”

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