Ross Brawn defends Ferrari: “Difficult to give up pole”. Ross Brawn defends Ferrari.

Scuderia Ferrari left Monaco with mixed feelings. Of course there is the joy for the first podium of the 2021 Formula 1 season, scored by the newcomer Carlos Sainz, and the awareness of having taken a concrete and important step forward in terms of performance. The Ferrari SF21 seemed the best car on the Monegasque streets but this can only exacerbate the bitterness for Charles Leclerc’s retirement after Saturday’s pole position. In Maranello there is the awareness of having seen vanish one of the few chances of victory – and perhaps even a double – of the entire 2021 Formula 1 championship

The confirmation that Charles Leclerc’s failure to start on Sunday was linked to the accident in qualifying has increased the pressure on Scuderia Ferrari. In defense of the former Maranello colleagues, however, the former manager of the Scuderia, Ross Brawn, intervened to defend them.

The current Formula 1 Managing Director has indeed broken a lance in favor of the decision taken by Ferrari not to replace the gearbox on the #16 car: “Ferrari was faced with a terribly difficult decision to make after Charles crashed in qualifying – wrote Brawn, in his usual post-race analysis article posted on the F1 website – when you have the pole in your pocket it is very difficult to give it up. Especially in Monaco, where you know that overtaking is difficult. The team felt they had done a thorough job checking all the various components. In hindsight it is easy to say that they would agree to take the penalty. It wasn’t an obvious decision.” – he explained.

The British engineer, however, also highlighted the great progress made by the Maranello team: “What impressed me most is the way Charles and Carlos are working together to help the team improve – said Ross Brawn – they understood that they have to push the team forward to be able to win races, before starting to battle against each other. Draining the team’s energy with an internal challenge is the last thing they need right now. They must maintain a respectful attitude towards each other and this is showing positive results so far.” – the former Ferrari boss concluded.