“Now what?” Charles Leclerc asked his team over the radio during the Chinese Grand Prix.
It was a very specific question addressing a very specific situation, but it also neatly sums up the awkward position Ferrari find themselves in after the third race in succession in which they have imposed team orders on their drivers.
Inevitably, Ferrari’s decision to order Leclerc to hand third position to team-mate Sebastian Vettel after just 10 laps in Shanghai overshadowed Lewis Hamilton’s dominant victory,
a win which sealed three one-twos for Mercedes in the first three races of this season.
And equally inevitably, Ferrari – and Vettel in particular – did not enjoy the spotlight on this always contentious subject. Which, if they are not careful, could come to overshadow their season.
