Ferrari supplier Brembo has expressed “great astonishment” after Charles Leclerc blamed his race-ending Monaco Grand Prix crash on his Formula 1 car’s brakes.
Although the Scuderia never was able to challenge supreme race winner Kimi Antonelli on Sunday, Leclerc was set for a solid third-place finish behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton when he crashed at Antony Noghes corner ahead of the lap-65 safety car restart.
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“Honestly, I’m not even going to take the **** blame,” the Monegasque fulminated on the radio. “These **** brakes!”
Leclerc’s personal braking issues were carried over from his Montreal struggles, hence his growing frustration – though he made it clear that the magnitude of the alleged failure was completely unprecedented.
The Ferrari driver therefore doubled down moments later when he spoke to the media following his retirement from the race: “Out of the four brakes, I had three brakes not working. So in a Formula 1 car, it’s never a good thing.
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“The front-left was working well, the front-right was half-working, and the two rear brakes were not working at all. And when I say at all, it’s that on data there’s no deceleration at all. It’s like the calipers were not even in the car.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
“As long as I was doing consecutive [laps], it was inconsistent, but there was none of those problems, at least to that extent. The problem was the safety car. As soon as I did the safety car, three of my four brakes stopped working. I could never switch them on again, nothing was working anymore.
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“I tried to do many actions in the car to try and help it. The only solution I had was to not brake in the last corner, but I would have crashed in Turn 1.
“There was just no solution.”
Brake supplier Brembo immediately responded to those comments, which it labelled as “premature”, with a statement reaffirming the reliability of the components it provides to Ferrari.
“The Brembo Group expresses great astonishment regarding what happened to Charles Leclerc during the Monaco Grand Prix and is very surprised by the statements made by the driver after the race,” it wrote.
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Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
“The partnership between Brembo and Scuderia Ferrari has been ongoing for over 50 years and also extends to other brands within the group, such as AP Racing clutches and Ohlins shock absorbers, confirming the solidity and breadth of the collaboration.”
“The company is currently unaware of the causes of the problems encountered by Charles Leclerc and therefore believes it is premature to make definitive technical assessments before analysing the available data. In cases like this, it is indeed necessary to examine the telemetry data alongside the team’s engineers to pinpoint the exact origin of the incident.”
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But Leclerc did assert the data was beyond doubt: “It’s very clear. I think Fred [Vasseur, team principal] and Jerome [d’Ambrosio, deputy team principal] saw the data, and I think it’s very clear for everyone. I don’t think there’s any doubt.”
Regardless of who’s responsible for the incident, Leclerc claimed the problem was already solved for this weekend’s Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. “We have the solution in-house, and I’ll go to the Lewis configuration from next race onward,” he added.
Interestingly, a paddock rumour has been suggesting Hamilton may be using Carbone Industrie brakes after working with the company extensively during his Mercedes years, though this has never been confirmed.
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