Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc was leading the 2022 French Grand Prix in Le Castellet after successfully defending against Max Verstappen during the first 15 laps as Ferrari’s tyre degradation seemed slightly better than Red Bull’s.
The Austrian team then decided to undercut the Monegasque driver and Max Verstappen was fitted with a fresh set of hard tyres to go to the end of the race. Charles Leclerc continued on the used medium tyres, hoping to have a tyre advantage in the final part of the French Grand Prix, but disaster struck on lap 18 as he spun off at Turn 11, losing more points while in the lead, after the incidents in Spain, Monte Carlo and Baku.
After hitting the Paul Ricard barriers, he sent a message over the team radio saying that “I cannot go on throttle.”
The reference to the throttle reminded everyone of what happened last time out in Austria, when Charles was forced to battle a sticking accelerator pedal in the final laps of the race at the Red Bull Ring, while some even suggested that his crash was caused by a similar issue to the one in Austria. Despite the fact that Charles Leclerc admitted in his post-race interview that he made a mistake, the conspiracies were further fuelled when Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache was seen telling Max Verstappen he had heard over the radio that the Ferrari F1-75 car of Charles had a throttle problem.
However, Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto confirmed that Charles Leclerc’s radio comment was just related to the driver trying to reverse out of the crash barrier, and had nothing to do with the cause of the crash itself: “First there was no issue with the throttle itself, [it was] nothing to do with Austria. What happened is a genuine mistake of Charles which are things that may happen, and I think they do not take off how good he is as a driver and as a fantastic driver. But it was a genuine mistake. What you heard on the radio was about when he was in reverse gear trying to get out from the barriers. There is a strategy, without going in to all the details, that [meant] he was on the throttle, but didn’t feel sufficient torque from the engine. It was nothing wrong. Simply the strategy there.” – he added.
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Mattia Binotto also pointed out that the issue with the throttle, which affected Charles’ car at the Red Bull Ring, had been completely fixed: “Normally we are not discussing much about details on what’s happening, but what happened in Austria is very simple. There was a damper which was slightly sticky. Not more than that. And we already put in place some actions to avoid it for the future.” – the Ferrari team principal concluded.
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