Charles Leclerc says he felt the need to “disconnect” from Formula 1 after a chat with Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto earlier this week, but denies there is a divide within the team.
Leclerc was left disappointed when Ferrari’s call on strategy cost him a shot at victory in last weekend’s British Grand Prix, instead paving way for team-mate Carlos Sainz to secure his maiden career win.
Having felt he had the pace to claim his third win of the season, Leclerc was frustrated to see an opportunity to close the gap to championship leader Max Verstappen pass by.
It led to reports in the Italian media that there is friction within the Ferrari camp, but Leclerc dismissed any speculation of a difference in opinion after Silverstone.
“This is really untrue,” Leclerc said, as quoted by Motorsport.com. “And I wish I didn’t have to get [into this] because this is the exact question I’ve got everywhere else. And I wish I wouldn’t need to fight for these types of things.
“We are extremely united. Is there a disappointment after the last race because we finished first and fourth? Yes, there was.
“Were we very, very happy that Carlos won his first race? Yes, we were honestly.
“But obviously before the safety car, you are first and second and you finish the race first and fourth. So there’s some kind of disappointment too. But there’s not any kind of division inside the team, that’s for sure.”
Leclerc has seen his title aspirations take a big hit in recent races through a combination of poor reliability and strategy errors, falling to a 43-point deficit in the drivers’ standings after being 41 points ahead before Imola.
In the wake of his latest disappointment, Leclerc confirmed he met with Binotto in Monaco this week to discuss the difficult run of results in more depth.
The Monegasque stressed the meeting was regular catch-up, but acknowledged it had come during a period that had been “quite hard on me”.
Asked what Binotto had said in his exchange in the pits at Silverstone, and later in Monaco, Leclerc said: “Well, obviously there’s been quite a lot of talks about the two events in the last few days.
“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 okay, and that I realised that I had done also an amazing job considering the situation I found myself in after the safety car.
“Then in Monaco, this is something that we usually do. He came to Monaco, because the last five races have been quite hard on me. And I just wanted to stay home, disconnect a bit from everything, to be fully 100 percent for this weekend.”
Leclerc revealed Ferrari has already made imminent changes to its operation to ensure it does not repeat the same mistakes in future races.
“For me personally, I think there’s nothing I could have done differently in a way,” he said “As a team, I think we have changed already a few things, just in the way of the communication throughout the race to be ready in that particular moment.
“Once a safety car is out, then you need to take a decision, and if you’re not ready for that, then it is tricky. So yeah, as a team, we have changed a few things. And I won’t go too much into detail.”
