Carlos Sainz believes Max Verstappen was wrong to ignore a team order to allow him past in Singapore, but says his team-mate has now shown his "bad boy" side.
Verstappen was told to move over for Sainz with five laps remaining of the Singapore Grand Prix as both Toro Rossos were lined up behind Sergio Perez. However, Verstappen refused and said the team agreed with his decision because both drivers were on the same strategy.
Sainz says he has not spoken to his team-mate about the incident but believes he should have obeyed the order.
“Personally with Max I did not talk with him because my problem was not with Max, it was more with the team and between him," Sainz said. "12 laps from the end the team first started to tell me to save my tyres because I was going to have a chance at the end of the race and then I left a one second gap with Max to save my tyres for the whole race.
"With five laps to go they told me to close the gap, I closed it, suddenly I saw the move was not coming and I kind of saw it coming that it was not going to happen. That was it really, he didn’t let me past. It was his decision and it has already been discussed.”
Asked if young drivers need to show they have the mental strength to be so selfish at certain times, Sainz said he still felt the order should have been adhered to having himself done so in Malaysia and Monaco.
“Obviously you always need to show a bit of selfishness if you are a champion but in my opinion the long term best position that you can do is listen to the team. I am a team player, I’ve said it from the beginning and I think I’ve shown in from the beginning every time the team has asked me for something I was telling them yes.
"In the end I rely on these guys, on Red Bull, on Toro Rosso, and my future relies on them. So if I turn my back on them I know that I am not going to go anywhere. So I think I behaved. When I need to be selfish, don’t worry, I will be, but so far I have not had the situation to show my selfishness because I’ve trusted them and every time they called for swaps I’ve done it.
“My approach will not change. I now know more what Max is about. He perhaps likes to play the bad boy role a bit more but I knew this and now he has demonstrated it. But it will not change, towards the team it’s not going to change. I’m going to keep having belief in them and trusting them. If they call something I will trust them. I’m a team player - I’m repeating myself - but it’s not really going to change my approach.”
And while Sainz says he can see a potential reason why Verstappen may have ignored the order, he insists he would have followed it himself.
“As far as I know he didn’t let me by because he didn’t know I was going to let him by at the end of the race. So if he didn’t know that I can come to understand that maybe if you’re not completely sure you don’t do it. But we had these discussions already in Monaco and he should know, he just didn’t want to do it. I would say I would have done it because I know the conclusions we came to after Monaco. I would have done it.”
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