Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc confirmed that an attempt to cheer him up after the disappointing outcome in the 2022 British Grand Prix at the Silverstone circuit was responsable for the body language displayed by Mattia Binotto during his one-on-one chat with the Ferrari team principal, which was caught on camera.
Mattia Binotto was seen on Formula 1’s world feed giving the Monegasque a post-race talk in parc fermé ahead of the first interviews and pointing a seemingly admonitory finger to Charles Leclerc, which led to some intrigue among the media and also fans.
However, Charles Leclerc later explained that his Maranello boss was just trying to lift his morale as the Monegasque was heading to a certain victory before he was defeated after the Maranello team decided not to pit him following the Safety car period in the final stages of the race:
“He wanted to cheer me up,” Charles Leclerc told Sky Sports F1, explaining the moment – “We will have to look at the global picture. On my side, I only have my picture for my race, and obviously in the car sometimes you don’t have the full picture. From my side, I felt like I lost a bit too much time in the first stint, and especially in the first part of the second stint. But this is only my view, and it might change once I see the full picture.” – he added.
The regret is even bigger given the fact that championship leader Max Verstappen was out of contention, which means that Charles Leclerc missed out on a great opportunity to reduce the gap to the Red Bull driver. The the strategy left Charles Leclerc a sitting duck on the restart and the Monegasque driver was not able to defend against his Maranello teammate Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, despite the fact that he fought hard with the latter two hoping to at least salvage a podium finish at Silverstone.
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Charles Leclerc was clearly disappointed to have gone from P1 to fourth in the British Grand Prix, defeated by circumstances and Scuderia Ferrari’s poor strategy call. Yet Charles proved once again he is a team player and as a result he did not want to rain on Carlos Sainz’s moment:
“I don’t want the focus to be pointed towards my disappointing race, but more towards his incredible race win. Obviously a first win in Formula 1 is always extremely special. It’s great for the team, it’s great for Carlos. He kept building confidence in the last few races and today he has shown it, so obviously I’m very happy for him.” – Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc concluded.
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