“Second place was within our reach,” Mattia Binotto blames botched Charles Leclerc’s pitstop

“Second place was within our reach,” Mattia Binotto blames botched Charles Leclerc’s pitstop

Mattia Binotto with Charles Leclerc

Ferrari’s weekend in Italy yielded an unsatisfactory result as Carlos Sainz got out in the first lap of the race, and Charles Leclerc let the pressure get the best of him, causing him to spin, leading to a long pitstop later. This pitstop of nearly 9 seconds, where his front wing was replaced, and an earlier one of 3.7 seconds is what Mattia Binotto believes has cost the championship-leading driver of a P2 finish at the Imola GP.

While speaking to Sky Sports and quoted by Autosprint, Ferrari’s boss said, “We have to keep morale high. Today there were small episodes and small details that made the difference. I think about the start and the pit stop, we could have stayed ahead of Perez, while Carlos was unlucky at the start, they are already two races not completed.”

Ferrari’s weekend ended with just eight points, which could have been in the 20s given the prowess of the F1-75. With Leclerc out of the picture, Red Bull bagged maximum points available, closing in on the deficit caused by multiple DNFs so far.

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Ferrari to review Charles Leclerc’s pitstop

Charles Leclerc slip in Italy
Charles Leclerc slip in Italy

The leading driver had three pitstops in the race. The first one itself had put pressure on the Monegasque driver as it was over a second slower than Max Verstappen.

Then as he shifted on the soft tires, Leclerc reportedly aimed for the fastest lap, which Binotto later said was to aim for the second place. Regardless, Leclerc went off the track, damaged his front wing, and pitted for 8.8 seconds, setting him way behind Max Verstappen.

Speaking of the botched stop, Binotto said, “I think it was a problem, I think the long stop penalized us more, without that Charles would have had the margin to stay ahead of Perez. We were discussing what had happened and what we could have done. The important thing is to keep a smile.”

Ferrari is going into Miami, making its debut, with a lead of just 11 points, reduced from 49 going into this weekend. Charles Leclerc now only leads by 27 points, closed in by 19 points. With pressure mounting up on the Tifosi, the task is to keep up the development and thus the lead.

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