Leclerc called for extra pit stop shortly before crashing out of Monaco GP

Charles Leclerc told Ferrari his rivals behind had a “huge advantage” at the restart moments before he crashed out of the race.

The Ferrari driver was concerned those catching him would have the benefit of warmer tyres. As the race restarted he ran wide at the final corner and hit the barrier.

His race came to an early and frustrating end as a result of the Safety Car which was deployed in reaction to Lance Stroll crashing out at the same corner a few laps earlier. Ferrari reacted by bringing both their cars into the pits even though it meant Leclerc would have to queue behind his team mate Lewis Hamilton, who had a five-second time penalty to serve.

Leclerc criticised that decision and told the team he did not understand it:

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Before the race restarted the drivers who had fallen a lap behind – which was the majority of the field – were allowed to rejoin the lead lap. As the Safety Car was going so slowly, Leclerc became concerned about his dropping tyre temperatures.

He suggested making another pit stop so he would have warmer tyres for the restart. However the other drivers were catching the queue so quickly his race engineer Bryan Bozzi pointed out that doing this would mean losing places:

As the race restarted, Leclerc skidded wide at the Anthony Noghes corner. After beating his steering wheel in frustration he told Bozzi: “I’m not going to take the fucking blame. These fucking brakes.”

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Afterwards Leclerc said he was “extremely disappointed, sad and angry,” at crashing out of a podium position at his home race. Although the degrading track surface at the corner appeared to contribute to his crash, Leclerc placed the blame entirely on the braking problems he has struggled with since the last race.

“I don’t know how much I can go into the details, but it’s just not acceptable,” he said. “The issues I’ve faced with my brakes have been – it’s not that it’s difficult, it’s that in this particular moment it’s just impossible.

“I cannot do anything. The only thing I can do is not brake for the last corner, but in a Formula 1 car not braking in the last corner, [you] end up in the wall anyway. So I put the least amount of braking I could possibly do and it’s not even braking, it’s leaning my foot on the brake.

“The rear brakes were not working at all – so I don’t know if there was an issue there or if it’s just the inconsistency I get – and the front delivered a lot more than what it should so that’s what happened.”

Despite Leclerc’s recent problems with his brakes he was reluctant to risk a change in set-up at a track where drivers require high confidence under braking and the risk of a crash is high.

“We have a fix,” he said. “We have different configurations between cars and I think we’ve found a solution. So that is positive.

“I didn’t really want to change this weekend and for that maybe I am to blame in a way. I thought that on a track like this in Monaco it was good to start with brakes that I knew. But considering the issues I’ve dealt with and that there are no solutions on a track like this, there’s not much to say.”

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