Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto has explained that he and Charles Leclerc "laughed together" as they read recent reports about the atmosphere inside the team. It came after a dramatic weekend for the outfit at Silverstone, where Carlos Sainz benefitted from a late Safety Car to pass Leclerc and secure his maiden F1 win. Ferrari had pitted Sainz for Soft tyres under the Safety Car but left long-time leader Leclerc out on old Hards, meaning he slumped to fourth when the action resumed. Immediately after the race, Binotto approached Leclerc for a conversation before the Monegasque headed to speak to the media, raising a finger in the process.
Binotto and Leclerc focused on "moving forward"
The sequence of events led to reports across Italian media of friction within the Ferrari camp, but Binotto was keen to play down such a suggestion. Indeed, having travelled to Monaco for follow-up talks with Leclerc ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, he said the pair were amused at the claims doing the rounds. "Charles was in Monaco, it has been a back-to-back [race sequence], [so] the best opportunity for me to meet him was simply to go there," Binotto explained to media, including RacingNews365.com . "We had dinner and we were laughing together at what we are reading in the newspapers, because we knew it was completely wrong. "We were again very happy to meet, to discuss, and try to move forward, and be constructive on what can be the scenarios and the best chance for us to be strong on the following races."
Binotto checked out reports about Ferrari mechanics
Binotto also made clear that the suggestion of some team members refusing to appear under the British GP podium or in Ferrari's celebratory team photo were false. "Once again, that was not true. When I heard or I read it, [I was] surprised," he added. "What I did, certainly, was to check, because you never know, maybe there is something that I missed! But I checked and that was not the case at all. "[It's] surprising and, once again, [I'm] disappointed to read that sometimes there are things which are written which do not correspond to what was happening. "Yes, the team was not fully, fully happy at the time, because we lost an opportunity after the Safety Car. But [we were] very happy for Carlos, who won his first race ever. "The entire team was there cheering at Carlos, so [there we] no issues."
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