Mattia Binotto has revealed what he said to Charles Leclerc following the Monegasque's dramatic crash out of the French Grand Prix. Leclerc had been in P1 for much of the early stages of the race when he lost the rear of the car and hit the barriers, immediately putting him out of the running. Up until that point, Binotto feels that the performance had generally been good. "I think we had a good performance, [with] tyre management," Binotto told Sky Sports F1 after the race. "[With] tyre degradation, again, I think we had a bit of [an] edge on Red Bull too because, after 15 laps, Charles was doing well and he was gaining a couple of tenths, three tenths per lap on Max [Verstappen]. "[Verstappen] had to stop very early, and we would have extended certainly the stint."
What Binotto said to Leclerc after crash
In terms of what happened to Leclerc, Binotto admits that it was a "mistake" from the driver, but insists that he shared some positive words with Leclerc afterwards. "[It was a] little mistake. It happened," the team boss explained. "I think what I said to Charles [was that] we make our life a bit more difficult, but I think it will [get] even better. We will enjoy more in the future."
Binotto identifies cause of incident
Leclerc was heard to make a reference to his throttle pedal in his first radio message after the crash, but Binotto says that the incident was purely down to driver error and was not influenced by the throttle. "[It was a] genuine driver error," Binotto added. "[His comment] about the throttle is [because] he put [it into] reverse and he tried to move back from the barriers. "Without going into the details, somehow he felt that the torque of the engine was not responding to the throttle, but [it was] nothing to do with the mistake."
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