Charles Leclerc says he needed to “disconnect” after a recent tricky run of races and has explained why his Ferrari Formula 1 team boss Mattia Binotto came to visit him in Monaco.
Leclerc led the drivers’ championship after winning two of the first four races but fell behind his chief title rival Max Verstappen when he had to retire from the Spanish Grand Prix while leading.
This would mark the start of an ongoing five-race streak during which Leclerc hasn’t finished on the podium – a run currently bookended by a British GP in which Leclerc was frustrated by Ferrari’s strategy during a late-race safety car that led to him falling from first to fourth place.
While Leclerc shied away from publicly criticising his Ferrari team after the race his post-race radio messages to the team hinted at his frustration.
“The amount of race time we have lost in this race is…oh my god,” he said.
“The only good thing about today is that Carlos [Sainz] won, freaking hell, guys…anyway enjoy the victory.”
After the race, Leclerc said he wanted to discuss the strategy with his team, which offered a stern defence of its strategy on Sunday evening.
But on the Thursday ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, Leclerc was adamant that mistakes had been made at Silverstone.
“There are things we could have done better because we were first and second and we finished first and fourth. But yeah, we know where we did the mistakes and I hope we can grow from that,” he said.
“Me personally there’s nothing I could have done differently in a way, then as a team, we have changed a few things already, just in the way of communication throughout the race, to be ready in that particular moment.
“Once a safety car is out, you need to take a decision there, and if you are not ready for that, it’s tricky, [so] as a team we have changed a few things.”
Leclerc insisted that Ferrari has not instructed him to not publicly speak out against the team and put his post-race radio message down to the “adrenaline” from driving.
He was quick to refute claims and reports that there is division within the team after a Silverstone race that featured a tense team orders debate.
“This is untrue and I wish I didn’t get this [question], because it’s the exact question that I’ve got everywhere else,” Leclerc said.
“I wish I wouldn’t need to fight for this type of things. We are extremely united.
“Is there a disappointment after last race because we finished first and fourth? Yes there was. Were we very happy that Carlos won his first race? Yes we were honestly.
“But obviously before the safety car you were first and second and you finished the race first and fourth so there’s some kind of disappointment too.
“[There’s] not any kind of division in the team.”
Some of the questions arose after Ferrari team boss Binotto was spotted in Monaco visiting Leclerc, who returned home in-between the back-to-back grand prix weekends.
“He was first quite angry with me after Silverstone because he saw me extremely down which obviously he understood but he just wanted to make sure that I was OK, “Leclerc explained.
“And I realised that OK, I had done also an amazing job considering the situation that I had found myself in after the safety car.
“Then in Monaco, something we usually do, he came to Monaco because the last five races have been quite hard on me, and I just wanted to stay at home and disconnect a bit from everything, to be fully 100% for this weekend.
“He just came to Monaco to speak about the last five races and to make sure it was all fine on my side.”
Leclerc added that Binotto paid the bill for the dinner in Monaco as he’s the one who “always invites me”.
After Leclerc’s retirement in Spain, pole turned into fourth place in Monaco while an engine problem forced him to retire in Baku and ensured he started the Canadian Grand Prix from the back row of the grid.
He recovered to fifth place in Montreal, and fourth at Silverstone leaves him third in the drivers’ championship, 43 points adrift of leader Verstappen.
