Culture
The end of Ferrari’s ‘C²’: Leclerc and Sainz’s genuine F1 partnership faces its sunset in Abu Dhabi
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz sat in the back of a car chatting en route to Bahrain International Circuit.
A buzz was in the air as Formula One prepared for the first race weekend of the 2024 season, fresh off of a long winter, the teams’ season launches and a silly season signing changing the drivers’ market. News broke on Feb. 1 that Lewis Hamilton would leave Mercedes and switch to Ferrari for the 2025 season, costing Sainz his seat. It wasn’t a matter of the Spaniard not performing — how do you say no to a seven-time world champion?
On the way to the Bahrain track, Leclerc stared down the camera with a slight smile. “Tell me, Carlos,” he said to his teammate before a stuffed chili pepper appeared in the frame. A fan had given it to Sainz, a nod towards one of his nicknames. Sainz said, “I want to give this to you, from my fan to me, for you so you remember me for the rest of your life.”
Leclerc pressed the chili against his face, saying, “A chiliiiiii.” Sainz added, “For our post-teammate era.” Leclerc stopped spinning the chili, his smile fading as he looked at his teammate.
“Come on, we’re only starting the season,” he responded with a slight laugh. Sainz said, “Getting emotional already.”
Together, Leclerc and Sainz formed a formidable driver duo that helped Ferrari contend for its first constructors’ championship since 2008, sitting 21 points behind first-place McLaren. The 2024 season has been the strongest of their respective F1 careers, Leclerc securing three wins (including an emotional home win at Monaco and a team home win at the Italian GP) and 12 podium finishes. Sainz brought home two victories (one just 16 days after having surgery) and eight podiums.
Their working relationship is strong, though tensions have flared, like after the Las Vegas Grand Prix. But on the personal side, the two have formed a beloved duo known by fans as C². Ferrari has put them through numerous viral challenges over the years, and the pair have become memes on social media. Their personalities have shone, and while they both will still be in the paddock in 2025 with Sainz at Williams, it’s the end of a special driver pairing.
“I’m sure that even though he won’t be in red next year, we’ll most likely travel together on the races to spend some time together,” Leclerc said in Abu Dhabi, “because our relationship is really good.”
“It’s a mix between a chili… and a carrot” 😅 @Carlossainz55 gifts his chili to @Charles_Leclerc 🙏 pic.twitter.com/4AHU2Xl4h0
— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) March 2, 2024
It all began four years ago.
Ferrari announced in May 2020 that Sainz would replace four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel. The news came after Daniel Ricciardo was confirmed as the Spaniard’s replacement at McLaren, Sainz’s home for two years. The Woking-based crew led the midfield battle then, ending 2020 third in the standings (but 117 points off of second-place Red Bull). Sainz’s breakthrough year came with the papaya as he secured his first podium in 2019.
However, one of the lasting memories of Sainz’s McLaren chapter is how he bonded with the team, especially then-teammate Lando Norris. The duo formed what is still known today among fans as ‘Carlando,’ the term even popping up during competitions like the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix.
Recreating that close friendship bond is rare, especially in a ruthless sport where the drivers’ market can be fluid. But Sainz and Leclerc clicked quickly, becoming so close that many fans wondered online whether it was a PR stunt pulled by Ferrari. Those types of comments continued for years, even when on-track frustrations flared.
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz prepare to play a game in the paddock during previews ahead of the Australian GP in 2023. (Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
“I honestly keep seeing sometimes in social media that people believe it’s not true and it’s all PR. And honestly, it disappoints me because people cannot sometimes understand that we have a professional relationship, and in that professional relationship, we go through ups and downs,” Sainz said in Qatar. “As competitive as we are, we’re always going to have some issues on track because, again, if he would be P1 and I would be P8 or vice versa, we would never have issues, but unfortunately, or let’s say fortunately for the team, we’re always in the same point on the track, and we’re having our little issues here and there.
“But then we also have a personal relationship, and as much as the professional one goes through ups and downs, the personal one, I can tell you, it’s always been really, really good.”
Leclerc and Sainz have clashed on track over the seasons but battled within the lines dictated by Ferrari (like at the 2024 United States Grand Prix, where they finished 1-2, the 2023 Italian Grand Prix and this year’s Las Vegas GP).
@f1 the ferraris made sure we were all entertained 🤺🤺 #f1 #formula1 #f1sprint #usgp #ferrari #carlossainz #charlesleclerc
♬ Hahahaha again – Lea👅
They are allowed to fight. And as noted by Sainz, they’re fighting for the same high-scoring positions, which starkly contrasts his stints at McLaren, Renault and Toro Rosso (now RB). He wasn’t fighting for wins when competing for previous teams, and none of those stops came with the same pressure that being a Ferrari driver brings. After all, it is the oldest team on the grid and a prestigious and legendary brand.
Sometimes, friction arises in the professional relationship, like during the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Leclerc gave a fiery radio message, saying, “Yeah, I did my job, but being nice f— me over all the f— time.” He was reluctant to go into details, and team principal Fred Vasseur felt Leclerc’s radio remarks were about the difficult situation, not one specific moment.
Communication, though, appears to be a hallmark of their relationship. They are able to separate the professional from the personal, but they also move on from misunderstandings quickly rather than allowing it to drag on to another race weekend.
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz dressed as cowboys in the paddock ahead of the United States Grand Prix in 2023. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Leclerc said in Qatar: “Whatever happened in Vegas, we discussed about it, and we are all good, which is the most important thing. I had no doubts about that because we’ve always had a really good relationship with Carlos and we’ve had races where sometimes things don’t go exactly the way we want, but the most important thing is that we discuss about it and we go forward.”
Leclerc was later asked in the same news conference what was said that made him comfortable putting trust in Ferrari and Sainz. He doubled down on the relationship and communication aspect again. “Sometimes I have overstepped the lines, and sometimes he did,” Leclerc said. “And then it only requires a discussion between us two. And we look ourselves in the eye, and we know each other since a very long time now. We understand each other very, very quickly.”
Come Sunday, once the checkered flag falls, the cameras turn off and the debriefs wrap up, that’ll be it. Sainz is driving in the post-season test with Williams, his new home, and it’ll be the end of an era in red. While the chapter will close on Sainz and Leclerc’s professional relationship, it’s hard to imagine that the dynamic duo of C² will cease to exist. This relationship, like any friendship, is different than ‘Carlando.’
Leclerc and Carlos Sainz celebrate in parc ferme during the Monaco GP on May 26, 2024. (Clive Rose/Getty Images)
And as Leclerc said, Sainz will only be working “20 meters away in the paddock.” But that doesn’t mean he won’t miss his teammate. His helmet for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend is indicative of it.
Etched on the top of the glittered helmet is “mucha5 gracia5 Carlos” — a nod to Sainz’s car number, 55.
“(Leclerc’s) one of those guys that I know in the future when I’m not in Formula One, I’ll look back and say I’m glad I met him, and I’m glad I raced with him, and I’m glad I can have a lot of good memories with him,” Sainz said in Qatar. “And in these four years in Ferrari, I’ve enjoyed every single moment with him, even the tough ones. As much as they’ve been tough, I’m pretty sure in 20-30 years I’ll laugh about them and look back with being proud of what we’ve achieved together.”
Top photos: Ken Murray/Icon Sportswire, Chris Graythen/Getty Images, Clive Mason – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images; Design: Meech Robinson/The Athletic
new video loaded: 250 Years of Jane Austen, in Objects
By Jennifer Harlan, Sadie Stein, Claire Hogan, Laura Salaberry and Edward Vega
December 18, 2025
“Window seat with garden view / A perfect nook to read a book / I’m lost in my Jane Austen…” sings Kristin Chenoweth in “The Girl in 14G” — what could be more ideal? Well, perhaps showing off your literary knowledge and getting a perfect score on this week’s super-size Book Review Quiz Bowl honoring the life, work and global influence of Jane Austen, who turns 250 today. In the 12 questions below, tap or click your answers to the questions. And no matter how you do, scroll on to the end, where you’ll find links to free e-book versions of her novels — and more.
On Dec. 16, 1775, a girl was born in Steventon, England — the seventh of eight children — to a clergyman and his wife. She was an avid reader, never married and died in 1817, at the age of 41. But in just those few decades, Jane Austen changed the world.
Her novels have had an outsize influence in the centuries since her death. Not only are the books themselves beloved — as sharply observed portraits of British society, revolutionary narrative projects and deliciously satisfying romances — but the stories she created have so permeated culture that people around the world care deeply about Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, even if they’ve never actually read “Pride and Prejudice.”
With her 250th birthday this year, the Austen Industrial Complex has kicked into high gear with festivals, parades, museum exhibits, concerts and all manner of merch, ranging from the classily apt to the flamboyantly absurd. The words “Jane mania” have been used; so has “exh-Aust-ion.”
How to capture this brief life, and the blazing impact that has spread across the globe in her wake? Without further ado: a mere sampling of the wealth, wonder and weirdness Austen has brought to our lives. After all, your semiquincentennial doesn’t come around every day.
By ‘A Lady’
Austen published just four novels in her lifetime: “Sense and Sensibility” (1811), “Pride and Prejudice” (1813), “Mansfield Park” (1814) and “Emma” (1815). All of them were published anonymously, with the author credited simply as “A Lady.” (If you’re in New York, you can see this first edition for yourself at the Grolier Club through Feb. 14.)
Where the Magic Happened
Placed near a window for light, this diminutive walnut table was, according to family lore, where the author did much of her writing. It is now in the possession of the Jane Austen Society.
An Iconic Accessory
Few of Austen’s personal artifacts remain, contributing to the author’s mystique. One of them is this turquoise ring, which passed to her sister-in-law and then her niece after her death. In 2012, the ring was put up for auction and bought by the “American Idol” champion Kelly Clarkson. This caused quite a stir in England; British officials were loath to let such an important cultural artifact leave the country’s borders. Jane Austen’s House, the museum now based in the writer’s Hampshire home, launched a crowdfunding campaign to Bring the Ring Home and bought the piece from Clarkson. The real ring now lives at the museum; the singer has a replica.
Austen Onscreen
Since 1940, when Austen had a bit of a moment and Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier starred in MGM’s rather liberally reinterpreted “Pride and Prejudice,” there have been more than 20 international adaptations of Austen’s work made for film and TV (to say nothing of radio). From the sublime (Emma Thompson’s Oscar-winning “Sense and Sensibility”) to the ridiculous (the wholly gratuitous 2022 remake of “Persuasion”), the high waists, flickering firelight and double weddings continue to provide an endless stream of debate fodder — and work for a queen’s regiment of British stars.
Jane Goes X-Rated
The rumors are true: XXX Austen is a thing. “Jane Austen Kama Sutra,” “Pride and Promiscuity: The Lost Sex Scenes of Jane Austen” and enough slash fic and amateur porn to fill Bath’s Assembly Rooms are just the start. Purists may never recover.
A Lady Unmasked
Austen’s final two completed novels, “Northanger Abbey” and “Persuasion,” were published after her death. Her brother Henry, who oversaw their publication, took the opportunity to give his sister the recognition he felt she deserved, revealing the true identity of the “Lady” behind “Pride and Prejudice,” “Emma,” etc. in a biographical note. “The following pages are the production of a pen which has already contributed in no small degree to the entertainment of the public,” he wrote, extolling his sister’s imagination, good humor and love of dancing. Still, “no accumulation of fame would have induced her, had she lived, to affix her name to any productions of her pen.”
Wearable Tributes
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Jane Austen fan wants to find other Jane Austen fans, and what better way to advertise your membership in that all-inclusive club than with a bit of merch — from the subtle and classy to the gloriously obscene.
The Austen Literary Universe
On the page, there is no end to the adventures Austen and her characters have been on. There are Jane Austen mysteries, Jane Austen vampire series, Jane Austen fantasy adventures, Jane Austen Y.A. novels and, of course, Jane Austen romances, which transpose her plots to a remote Maine inn, a Greenwich Village penthouse and the Bay Area Indian American community, to name just a few. You can read about Austen-inspired zombie hunters, time-traveling hockey players, Long Island matchmakers and reality TV stars, or imagine further adventures for some of your favorite characters. (Even the obsequious Mr. Collins gets his day in the sun.)
A Botanical Homage
Created in 2017 to mark the 200th anniversary of Austen’s death, the “Jane Austen” rose is characterized by its intense orange color and light, sweet perfume. It is bushy, healthy and easy to grow.
Aunt Jane
Hoping to cement his beloved aunt’s legacy, Austen’s nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh published this biography — a rather rosy portrait based on interviews with family members — five decades after her death. The book is notable not only as the source (biased though it may be) of many of the scant facts we know about her life, but also for the watercolor portrait by James Andrews that serves as its frontispiece. Based on a sketch by Cassandra, this depiction of Jane is softer and far more winsome than the original: Whether that is due to a lack of skill on her sister’s part or overly enthusiastic artistic license on Andrews’s, this is the version of Austen most familiar to people today.
Cultural Currency
In 2017, the Bank of England released a new 10-pound note featuring Andrews’s portrait of Austen, as well as a line from “Pride and Prejudice”: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!” Austen is the third woman — other than the queen — to be featured on British currency, and the only one currently in circulation.
In the Trenches
During World War I and World War II, British soldiers were given copies of Austen’s works. In his 1924 story “The Janeites,” Rudyard Kipling invoked the grotesque contrasts — and the strange comfort — to be found in escaping to Austen’s well-ordered world amid the horrors of trench warfare. As one character observes, “There’s no one to touch Jane when you’re in a tight place.”
Baby Janes
You’re never too young to learn to love Austen — or that one’s good opinion, once lost, may be lost forever.
The Austen Industrial Complex
Maybe you’ve not so much as seen a Jane Austen meme, let alone read one of her novels. No matter! Need a Jane Austen finger puppet? Lego? Magnetic poetry set? Lingerie? Nameplate necklace? Plush book pillow? License plate frame? Bath bomb? Socks? Dog sweater? Whiskey glass? Tarot deck? Of course you do! And you’re in luck: What a time to be alive.
Around the Globe
Austen’s novels have been translated into more than 40 languages, including Polish, Finnish, Chinese and Farsi. There are active chapters of the Jane Austen Society, her 21st-century fan club, throughout the world.
Playable Persuasions
In Austen’s era, no afternoon tea was complete without a rousing round of whist, a trick-taking card game played in two teams of two. But should you not be up on your Regency amusements, you can find plenty of contemporary puzzles and games with which to fill a few pleasant hours, whether you’re piecing together her most beloved characters or using your cunning and wiles to land your very own Mr. Darcy.
#SoJaneAusten
The wild power of the internet means that many Austen moments have taken on lives of their own, from Colin Firth’s sopping wet shirt and Matthew Macfadyen’s flexing hand to Mr. Collins’s ode to superlative spuds and Mr. Knightley’s dramatic floor flop. The memes are fun, yes, but they also speak to the universality of Austen’s writing: More than two centuries after her books were published, the characters and stories she created are as relatable as ever.
Bonnets Fit for a Bennett
For this summer’s Grand Regency Costumed Promenade in Bath, England — as well as the myriad picnics, balls, house parties, dinners, luncheons, teas and fetes that marked the anniversary — seamstresses, milliners, mantua makers and costume warehouses did a brisk business, attiring the faithful in authentic Regency finery. And that’s a commitment: A bespoke, historically accurate bonnet can easily run to hundreds of dollars.
Most Ardently, Jane
Austen was prolific correspondent, believed to have written thousands of letters in her lifetime, many to her sister, Cassandra. But in an act that has frustrated biographers for centuries, upon Jane’s death, Cassandra protected her sister’s privacy — and reputation? — by burning almost all of them, leaving only about 160 intact, many heavily redacted. But what survives is filled with pithy one-liners. To wit: “I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.”
Stage and Sensibility
Austen’s works have been adapted numerous times for the stage. Some plays (and musicals) hew closely to the original text, while others — such as Emily Breeze’s comedic riff on “Pride and Prejudice,” “Are the Bennet Girls OK?”, which is running at New York City’s West End Theater through Dec. 21 — use creative license to explore ideas of gender, romance and rage through a contemporary lens.
Austen 101
Austen remains a reliable fount of academic scholarship; recent conference papers have focused on the author’s enduring global reach, the work’s relationship to modern intersectionality, digital humanities and “Jane Austen on the Cheap.” And as one professor told our colleague Sarah Lyall of the Austen amateur scholarship hive, “Woe betide the academic who doesn’t take them seriously.”
W.W.J.D.
When facing problems — of etiquette, romance, domestic or professional turmoil — sometimes the only thing to do is ask: What would Jane do?
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