Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc admitted that he felt the need to “disconnect” following the events in the British Grand Prix which came after a series of bad results for Charles and has explained why Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto came to visit him in Monaco a few days ago.
Charles Leclerc had a great start to the 2022 Formula 1 championship and led the standings thanks to his race wins in Bahrain and Australia after the first three rounds of the season, but has since then lost a lot of ground to his title rival Max Verstappen. Things started to get worse at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, when the Monegasque drive had to retire while leading the race.
The Spanish Grand Prix marked the start of an ongoing five-race streak during which Charles Leclerc has not finished on the podium – a run that continued last weekend at the Silverstone circuit, as Charles was once again leading the race, but a bad strategy call from the Maranello team during a late-race safety car led to the Monegasque finishing outside the podium.
While Charles Leclerc never publicly criticized his Ferrari team after the race, he was of course extremely disappointed with how things have been going in recent races:
“The amount of race time we have lost in this race is…oh my god. The only good thing about today is that Carlos [Sainz] won, freaking hell, guys…anyway enjoy the victory.” – this was his team radio message after the British Grand Prix.
At the end of last weekend’s event, Charles Leclerc admitted that he wanted to talk with his team about the the strategy decisions, while Ferrari has insisted that the strategy calls were made with the goal of favouring the lead driver namely Charles. However, during this press conference ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc explained that errors were in fact made last weekend:
“There are things we could have done better because we were first and second and we finished first and fourth. But yeah, we know where we did the mistakes and I hope we can grow from that. Me personally there’s nothing I could have done differently in a way, then as a team, we have changed a few things already, just in the way of communication throughout the race, to be ready in that particular moment. “Once a safety car is out, you need to take a decision there, and if you are not ready for that, it’s tricky, [so] as a team we have changed a few things.” – he said.
Charles Leclerc added that the Italian side has not instructed him to not publicly speak out against the team and put his post-race radio message down to the “adrenaline” from the events in the final part if the race. At the same time, the Monegasque strongly denied any division within the team after a Silverstone race which was also marked by some tense team orders discussions:
“This is untrue and I wish I didn’t get this [question], because it’s the exact question that I’ve got everywhere else. I wish I wouldn’t need to fight for this type of things. We are extremely united. Is there a disappointment after last race because we finished first and fourth? Yes there was. Were we very happy that Carlos won his first race? Yes we were honestly. But obviously before the safety car you were first and second and you finished the race first and fourth so there’s some kind of disappointment too. [There’s] not any kind of division in the team.” – he continued.
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However, there were many questions after Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto was seen in Monte Carlo a few days ago, where he visited the Monegasque driver, after Charles came back home following the British Grand Prix:
“He was first quite angry with me after Silverstone because he saw me extremely down which obviously he understood but he just wanted to make sure that I was OK. And I realised that OK, I had done also an amazing job considering the situation that I had found myself in after the safety car. Then in Monaco, something we usually do, he came to Monaco because the last five races have been quite hard on me, and I just wanted to stay at home and disconnect a bit from everything, to be fully 100% for this weekend. He just came to Monaco to speak about the last five races and to make sure it was all fine on my side.”
Charles Leclerc also said that Mattia Binotto paid the bill for the dinner in Monaco as he’s the one who “always invites me”.
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