"He'll have to close up" - Ferrari's Russian GP radio transcript

Ferrari sparked controversy in Sunday's Russian Grand Prix as it used team orders with Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc to try and orchestrate a one-two finish, only to trip over itself and leave its drivers frustrated.

A pre-race agreement to work together and get the jump on Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton in second place prompted pole-sitter Leclerc to back out of fighting Vettel at Turn 2, allowing the German driver to move into the lead.

Luke Smith_1

29 Sep 2019

But despite a number of calls from Ferrari asking Vettel to swap the places back, he did not, with the switch only coming after the team gave Leclerc the undercut in the pits.

A Virtual Safety Car ironically triggered by Vettel stopping on track due to an issue ultimately cost Leclerc victory, causing him to drop to third in the final classification behind both Mercedes drivers.

Here's a look at the radio chatter between Ferrari's pit wall - both race engineers and sporting director Laurent Mekies - and its drivers.

Lap 2 (SC)

Xavier Marcos Padros to Charles Leclerc: "We are looking into doing the swap partway into the race."

Leclerc to Padros: "Yeah yeah, no problem, this I understand."

Lap 6

Padros to Leclerc: "Sebastian will let you by next lap."

Sebastian Vettel to Riccardo Adami: "I would have got him anyways. But let's break away for another two laps."

Lap 7

Adami to Vettel: "Let Charles by."

Vettel to Adami: "He'll have to close up."

Lap 8

Adami to Vettel: “Let him by, gap is 1.4 seconds."

Leclerc to Padros: "You put me behind. I respected everything. We will speak later. But now it is difficult to close the gap obviously."

Lap 10

Adami to Vettel: “You are the fastest car on-track, head down, you are doing well. We are looking into Plan C, Charles is 1.9 behind."

Laurent Mekies to Leclerc: "Charles, we will do the swap later on. Lewis is a bit close, and we want to push now into the race. We will do it later, just focus on your race, thank you."

Leclerc to Mekies: "I completely understand. The only thing is that I respected. I gave the slipstream, no problems. But then I tried to push at the beginning of the race, but it's no problems. Manage the situation."

Lap 15

Padros to Leclerc: “Sebastian in front 3.7, Hamilton behind 3.3."

Lap 16

Padros to Leclerc: “You can push now."

Lap 24

Vettel to Adami: “My rears are falling off."

Lap 25

Adami to Vettel: “We are worried about Hamilton going long, Hamilton lap time 8.8."

Lap 26

Adami to Vettel: "Box now Seb, box now."

Lap 27

Vettel to Adami: “I’ve got no K."