Ferrari suffered a nightmare in France – and their catastrophe was summed up in two shocking radio conversations.

Charles Leclerc suffered what might be the fatal blow to his world title ambitions when he crashed out while comfortably leading the race.

After realising he was unable to reverse out of the barriers, the enormity of the disaster hit home for the Monegasque driver, who delivered a gut-wrenching scream into his radio: “No!”

The raw emotion in his voice stunned F1 fans and pundits.

Sky Sports commentator Paul di Resta said: “That scream kind of noise is going to haunt a lot of people for a long time, especially at this point of the championship race.”

Asked after the race about his guttural roar, Leclerc said: “I would have preferred to keep my frustrations to myself. I didn’t know the radio was on.”

At the time, he told his team engineers he had a throttle issue, but later recanted that excuse.

“It was a mistake, my mistake,” he said. “I was pushing too much and I lost the rear.”

Ferrari’s race went from bad to worse later on.

Carlos Sainz had started from the back of the grid, penalised for taking on fresh engine parts, but had charged through the field in a remarkable assault.

By lap 14 he was already up to 10th, and a gutsy pass on George Russell had him in P4 in the final quarter of the race.

But Sainz had been handed a five-second time penalty due to an unsafe release from his first pit stop, and his medium tyres were becoming increasingly worn.

The Spaniard attempted to overtake Sergio Perez of Red Bull to move into third place, but initially failed to make the move.

He asked to pit for fresh tyres, but was initially told to keep racing. Then, while in the middle of a brutally tricky overtake on Perez, his race engineers suddenly spoke up again: “Box Carlos, box. Pit confirm.”

“Not now! Not now! Not now” was Sainz’s frustrated reply.

Ferrari’s bizarre decision to talk to their driver in the middle of a high-intensity on-track battle was blasted by commentators.

Former world champion Nico Rosberg told Sky Sports: “I was shaking my head. What on earth are they doing there?”

“First of all, he was in the middle of a huge battle out on track and his whole team wasn’t watching that anymore, they were down doing their calculations about pit stop times. They were talking to him in the middle of the wheel-to-wheel action. I thought, ‘guys what are you doing?’”

But having moved into third position, Sainz appeared set to secure a remarkable podium – only for Ferrari to call him into the pits. He finished in fifth, but picked up an extra point for securing the fastest lap of the race on his fresh tyres.

Rosberg continued: “Then, Carlos is in P3 and comfortably he would have been able to stay there, and the tyres would have been fine until the end. He even had a chance to still get Lewis for P2. Then, they bring him in and there’s no chance to go beyond P5 where he ended up.

“What an earth is going on there? Really, I think it’s time they made some changes there, some serious changes.”

The danger for Sainz was that his ageing tyres may not have made it to the end of the race had he remained on track, with a catastrophic tyre failure a possibility.

He also needed to make a five-second gap over Perez in order to hold onto third place, given his time penalty from the earlier pit stop error.

Speaking to Sky Sports after the race, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto was fiercely defensive of the decision to pit Sainz.

“We don’t feel it’s the right choice, we are pretty sure it was the right choice,” Binotto said.

“Because at the time, he was short on life with wear and tyres so it could have been really risky to go to the end. We don’t think he would have had the pace still to open the gap to five seconds, and by stopping he did the fastest lap, which is certainly a point which was gained. I think that was the safest and the right decision to take.”

Having complained to his team mid-race about the decision, Sainz later changed his tune, defending his often-criticised strategists.

“I think the team is doing a very good job on strategy this year,” Sainz said.

“At Ferrari we get super criticised for things that other teams might be going through also in their pit stop windows. Every time there is a tricky moment on strategy, we are discussing things, but we are not a disaster like people seem to say we are.”

“We like to discuss things, we are open about them,” Sainz said. “Yes, I was in the middle of an overtake but the team believed that was the right lap to stop and come back through the field.

“I believed at the time that maybe it was better to risk it and stay out and see what happens with the tyres, even if it was the medium tyre on the limit of its life, but I had just made it to P3 and I saw a podium position. I thought, ‘if I make these tyres last, maybe I can finish on the podium’, but we will never know.

“The team has a lot more data on the computer, they have a lot more numbers to go through, and if they took that decision, I’m 100 per cent convinced that they did it with the best of intentions and the best spirit. We need to keep progressing and we need to analyse everything and see how we can be better, but I’m convinced the team is doing a good job.”

Ferrari has faced plenty of scrutiny for strategy calls throughout the season, but the criticism will only grow stronger after another disastrous day – no matter their “best of intentions”.