Racing
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Charles Leclerc said his Monaco Grand Prix retirement was caused by a severe Ferrari brake failure, not loose asphalt or driver error, and that the team will switch him to Lewis Hamilton’s brake configuration for the next race in Barcelona.
Leclerc crashed out at Antony Noghès while running third after the Safety Car phase, and said only one of the car’s four brakes was working properly by that point. Speaking after the race to journalists in Monaco, including PlanetF1.com, Crash.net and other media, the Ferrari driver said: “Out of the four brakes, I had three brakes not working.” He said the front-left brake was working well, the front-right was “half working,” and “the two rear brakes were not working at all,” adding that “on data, there’s no deceleration at all. It’s like the calipers were not even in the car.”
He said the problem became critical after the first Safety Car and never recovered. “As soon as I did the safety car, three of my four brakes stopped working,” Leclerc said. “I could never switch them on again. Nothing was working anymore.” He said he tried “many actions in the car” to bring them back, but “there was just no solution.”
That account directly contradicted the idea that the circuit surface was the real explanation for the crash in the final corner. In comments to Sky Sports F1, Leclerc said: “It doesn’t help to have asphalt that is coming off but data speaks for itself.” He added: “I’ve always been very honest, and no matter how many mistakes I make, I would hate to look at myself in the mirror and see excuses I’ve invented for myself.” He then made clear he did not accept blame for this accident, saying: “I look like an idiot, and when you look like an idiot for a mistake of yours, it’s fine, but it’s borderline dangerous.”
The Monaco retirement came after a run of brake-related concerns that Leclerc said had already been affecting him since Canada. Through the Monaco weekend he had visible lock-ups at Mirabeau in Friday practice, and after qualifying fourth he described the brakes as “extremely inconsistent” and said he was “struggling massively.” He also said the issue had become especially hard to manage in lower-grip conditions, with cold tires and inconsistent behavior making the car “an absolute nightmare” on the limit.
Ferrari now appears set for a change in direction rather than further trying to manage the same problem. Leclerc said the team has “the solution in-house” and that from the next race he will move to “the Lewis configuration” in search of the consistency he feels has been missing. He also said team principal Fred Vasseur and deputy team principal Jerome d’Ambrosio had reviewed the data and agreed the problem was clear, leaving Barcelona as the first test of whether Ferrari’s change can stop a braking issue that has now cost Leclerc heavily across consecutive weekends.