Charles Leclerc reveals why he sometimes ‘hated’ racing against Carlos Sainz at Ferrari

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Charles Leclerc will enter the final 10 races of his Ferrari career with Carlos Sainz after the summer break after four years.

This is after Carlos Sainz finally revealed that he would be moving to Williams in 2025 after Ferrari decided to replace him with Lewis Hamilton to revive their Championship prospects.

Leclerc said he sees a ‘super opportunity’ to work with the seven-time world champion, after Hamilton signed a multi-year £80 million deal with the Scuderia in February.

It is set to be billed as one of F1’s strongest lineups in 2025, however Leclerc and Sainz has also proved to be a successful partnership for Ferrari.

Discussing their partnership on the Beyond the Grid podcast, Charles Leclerc revealed why he sometimes hated racing against his teammate.

READ MORE: Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz’s life outside F1 from full name, girlfriend and height

Charles Leclerc on what he will miss about Carlos Sainz

While Sainz earned the bragging rights of being the only non-Red Bull driver to win a race last year, Leclerc realised his dream of winning the Monaco GP in 2024.

The pair have rarely clashed on track but Leclerc does admit there was one thing that he ‘hated’ about racing against the Spaniard.

“I think just Carlos the person. I think we get on very, very well. Unfortunately, with the world as it is now, everything is over analyzed, over criticized,” said Leclerc.

“But the reality of things is that we always had a really good relationship. And yes, there’s been many moments where inside the helmet, I hated him and he hated me because we didn’t view the situation in the same way, but everything was fixed after a discussion between us two. And yeah, as I said, we get on very, very well.”

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz head-to-head

The pair have been remarkably close over their three and a half seasons together in Formula 1, with their combined scoreline as it stands showing 850 points for Leclerc to 772.5 for Sainz.

Leclerc has consistently held the upper hand in qualifying having won the intra-team battle by 13-9 in 2021 and 2022, increasing it to 15-7 in 2023, and it currently on 8-5 to Leclerc this year.

READ MORE: F1 2024 teammate head-to-head battles including race, Sprint and qualifying results

The Monogasque also outscored Sainz after he failed to finish at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last year, enabling him to jump to fifth in the Drivers’ Championship while Sainz fell to seventh.

Although it has been a disappointing end to the first half of the season for Ferrari, Leclerc and Sainz’s closely-matched results on track will encourage them to take the fight to McLaren and Red Bull in the last 10 races.