swan ¹⁶

carlos on his battles with charles: "regarding the battles we had, it's true that when you're fighting for wins, the pressure is greater and there's much more at stake. that's why you naturally become a bit more selfish than when you're competing in the midfield for an eighth or ninth place. it's more difficult to stick to the team's ideal strategy because there's a win on the line; and back then, wins were within reach. even so, i think i always respected charles and he respected me; we never clashed or anything like that. we simply had intense battles— i remember Monza or Las Vegas—; there were many moments of great tension throughout the year. perhaps the most difficult thing was managing the environment, the relationship with the media and, above all, the fans, who were very passionate at that time. the situation was very polarized between charles and me. i remember suffering a bit because of his more radical fans, who insulted me or wished me ill. even some italian media outlets criticized me for not acting enough as a 'second driver' when the situation required it, and the same thing happened when it was leclerc who had to assume that role. therefore, it was more about the pressure surrounding ferrari —and that comes with being part of the team—than any real problems between charles and me; in fact, any conflict was resolved that same night, when we talked things through calmly and managed to find a solution to move forward" [marca]