“It’s not a gearbox problem”– Ferrari boss dismissed the fact that the crash in qualifying resulted in Charles Leclerc exit on Sunday.
Charles Leclerc was set to battle in Monaco Grand Prix from P1, where it is nearly impossible to overtake the car in front of you; hence, it gave all the chances to Leclerc to win the race, or be at least on the podium.
Leclerc got his podium, as his crash cancelled all other final flying laps on the track. But it was suspected that the crash might have damaged the gearbox, and a repair could have pushed Leclerc down to P6.
But this was not the case as per the Ferrari inspection, as they found no serious damage in the gearbox and let it remain like that. On Sunday, before the race start Leclerc had issues in the car and everybody suspected the crash indeed damaged the car.
But Binotto has refused this possibility and has claimed that the car’s issue was not even related to the gearbox. So, Ferrari’s inspection was not at fault. Nevertheless, Leclerc was not able to start the race.
“We need to fully understand what happened. The failure is on the driveshaft into the hub on the left-hand side, so it’s not a gearbox problem we had,” he tells Sky F1.
“The gearbox has been inspected yesterday evening, it has been rebuilt, and the gearbox was ok for the race. What happened is on the opposite side compared to the accident, so it may be completely unrelated to the accident.”
“But something on which we need to carefully understand and analyse. We have no answer right now.”
Unlucky at home
Despite being a Monegasque, Leclerc has never finished a race at his home in his professional motorsport career, and he is clearly frustrated by it.
“In the garage, it was very difficult to feel ok, but I guess now I’m getting used to this feeling here, unfortunately. I’ve never finished a race here – this year, I don’t start it. It’s a difficult one to take, and I also feel for the team, said Leclerc.
