Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc has rejected any suggestion that team members on his side of the garage refused to partake in the team photo after Carlos Sainz’s victory in Silverstone.
Leclerc was leading the British Grand Prix late on from his team-mate when the Safety Car was deployed after Esteban Ocon came to a stop.
The Monegasque was surprisingly left out on track on old Hards while Sainz was brought into the pits, and the Spaniard quickly dispatched him on the restart.
Leclerc was then passed by Sergio Perez and Sir Lewis Hamilton as another poor strategy call saw the 24-year-old fall from first to fourth, as it did in Monaco.
READ: Ferrari slammed for hurting ‘main contender’ Leclerc who was faster than Sainz despite wing damage
Sainz claimed his maiden win, and there were reports after the race that some of Leclerc’s team refused to take part in the celebration photo, but the four-time race winner confirmed that this was not the case.
“It is a shame to see all of this type of things because it is definitely not what is happening inside the team,” he told Sky Sports.
“We are a very united team, we’ve always been and it’s not these difficult races that will make it change.
“Of course, were we disappointed after last weekend? I think we were, because speaking about last weekend, we were one-two, we finished one-four so of course part of the team were disappointed.”
Leclerc elaborated that some team members had flights that they were going to miss as a result of staying for the picture.
READ: Ferrari boss addresses Carlos Sainz ignoring team orders at 2022 British Grand Prix
“This was definitely not the reason whatsoever for not everybody being on the picture,” he explained.
“I think half of the team that stayed on the picture missed the plane to go back home and it was quite tricky.”
The reason the celebrations took so long was because Sainz had other commitments having claimed his maiden win, so they were forced to delay.
“If you want the full details of it, we wanted to do a first picture first, but Carlos was not here, so we had to delay everything,” added Leclerc.
“But no, there is no hard feelings whatsoever; of course, there is disappointed because on my side, I can only be disappointed, obviously leading the race and finishing fourth.
“But everybody was very, very happy for Carlos and this is the feeling that there is inside the team.
“But we need to be better of course for these things to not happen again, but we will.”
Leclerc has the opportunity to immediately bounce back this weekend in Austria as the pinnacle of motorsport embarks on its second sprint weekend of the season.