Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto explained that Charles Leclerc did not spin out because of the problem he had experienced in Austria, but because of a mistake when he tried to extract more power by stepping on the accelerator
During the French GP, won by Max Verstappen on Sunday, the scene of the race was undoubtedly the accident suffered by Charles Leclerc while leading. The Monegasque lost control of his car near turn 11 and spun, hitting the tire barrier and blowing up the race. At the time of the accident, Charles' first message was that there was a problem with the throttle that had already affected the driver in Austria, but the Monegasque himself and Ferrari have denied the defect and admitted the driver's error.
"First of all, there was no problem with the accelerator itself, nothing to do with Austria," began Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto. "What happened was a genuine mistake by Charles [Leclerc], which is something that happens. I don't think it diminishes how good he is as a driver, he's fantastic. But he made a mistake," he admitted.
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Binotto clarified that Leclerc's radio communication with the team that was shown on the broadcast happened with the #16 Ferrari car already on the tire barrier, at a moment when Charles was trying to return to the track. In addition, he tried to explain what happened to motivate such a sudden mistake by the talented Monegasque.
"What you heard on the radio happened when he was trying to get into reverse gear to get out of the tire barrier," he revealed. "There is a strategy, without going into details, that caused him to step on the gas without feeling enough power coming from the engine. There was nothing wrong. It was simply the strategy," he emphasized.
Finally, Binotto recalled the problem felt by Leclerc in Austria, when he won with emotion when he felt a problem in the throttle at the end of the race, after overtaking Verstappen three times for the lead. The Italian stressed that his team has already solved the situation and should not suffer from another incident of this type in the future.
"Normally we don't discuss too many details about what is happening, but what happened in Austria is very simple," he said. "There was a damper that was sticking. Nothing more than that. And we have already taken some actions to prevent this from happening in the future," he finished.
Formula One returns next weekend, July 29-31, at the Hungaroring, with the Hungarian Grand Prix, which closes the first part of the championship.