Ex-F1 drivers warn Leclerc on his Ferrari criticism
May 31 - Two former Formula 1 drivers have warned Charles Leclerc to be careful about his criticism of Ferrari's bungled race strategy at Monaco.
Team boss Mattia Binotto immediately protected the Maranello marque's top star, insisting he is right to be angry about only finishing fourth on Sunday.
"When you start first and lose the race in this way, it means that there was some error," he told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
"Charles is right - it means something didn't work out and there is some decision to review."
Dutch F1 GP boss and former driver Jan Lammers, however, said the Monaco-born star also needs to take some responsibility for why teammate Carlos Sainz got ahead.
"Sainz was very strong in determining his own strategy," he told NOS. "Leclerc can learn from that.
"Under those circumstances, whether you send a driver out with or without slicks on a semi-wet track, the driver ultimately makes the decision," Lammers added.
"He can say which tyres he wants, basically. So I think Leclerc should think about that."
Another former driver, Ralf Schumacher, admits that while Red Bull was "calm" in reacting to the strategic decisions on Sunday, that same calm "was nowhere to be seen at Ferrari".
"You could hear on the radio how much panic they were in," he told Sky Deutschland. "They just didn't know what to do with Leclerc and in the end they made the wrong decision."
However, Schumacher said Leclerc should be more careful about complaining about Ferrari's error.
"He has also made enough mistakes himself, so he has to remain humble," said the former Toyota driver. "These things just happen. You win together and you lose together.
"The way I see it, Ferrari has done less wrong so far this season than Leclerc has himself."
On the other hand, he says Red Bull simply has more recent experience about how to handle the current world championship challenge.
"On the other hand, Red Bull has learned an awful lot in recent years from the tough world championship fight with Mercedes, who have always been strategically very strong," said Schumacher. "They are now benefiting from this."
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What else can he do to vent such anger, he must have been furious, again.
Any get out clause in his contract? only Mercedes will be looking for a driver when LH calls it a day.
Don"t see him leaving Ferrari for a loooong time.
Louis isn't retiring soon either.
Ferrari has an introvert running the team who looks like a clown, does not inspire and has consistently underperformed. The problem with Ferrari is Bozo the clown. The team would be firmly on top with this car and Maurizio Arrivabene running the show.
Crap Car ---> Arrivabene takes the fall
Good Car ---> Bozo the clown looks like a clown
I liked Arrivabene, and agree he took the fall, but Binoto has done well in my opinion.
He should change hairdressers tho ;-)
This w/e was poor calls by him. Horner kicked his star.
Easy also to forget , if we are talking team managers, is that, and i think im right that Horny has been in the job the longest 17yrs,longer even than Sircryalot,and during the dark yrs , was never any mention of sacking him, as for Toto all hes known in his meager 8.5 yrs, is success built on all his predecessors hard work and efforts by the engineers, then just ride the wave .Even EJ managed 14yrs, but yes Arrivabene would get my vote aswell
Curly has said he will only visit his parrucchiere, when Ferrari win the WDC
Leclerc is too good a driver to start whining over a mistake in the pits. Everyone else understands that you can't be perfect every time out as there are just far too many things that can go wrong in a high-performance sport like F1. If he adds up his own mistakes (there have been enough of them so far) he will realize the folks in the pits are entitled to a few now and then. Angry criticism is seldom constructive.