Leclerc, Vettel know they were ‘wrong’ to disobey protocols

Ferrari Formula 1 team boss Mattia Binotto says that both his drivers understand that they “did something wrong” after receiving warnings from the FIA about breaking the COVID-19 protocols.

Charles Leclerc received a letter from the FIA after he was pictured on social media in Monaco in the days between the two races at the Red Bull Ring.

During the Austrian GP weekend, Sebastian Vettel was cautioned after he was seen talking to Helmut Marko and Christian Horner of Red Bull Racing with no one wearing masks, thus breaking the strict ‘bubble’ requirements that keep teams apart.

Binotto says that the drivers and team have learned lessons from the incidents, and will be more careful from now on.

“The instructions for Charles and Seb and probably the entire team are that we need really to pay attention to how important it is to be here and race for the entire circus,” said Binotto.

“I think being distracted on the protocols is not great, we need really to be strict. So this has really raised our attention, our concentration, really paying attention.

“I think both drivers understood that they did something wrong, and I’m pretty sure they will pay more attention in the future.”

Meanwhile, Binotto downplayed the modest practice times achieved by Ferrari on Friday, stressing that the team was focussing on testing its new aero package rather than chasing the ideal balance in the hotter conditions.

Leclerc was the quickest of the Ferrari drivers, with ninth place in FP2, while Vettel lost his best time – which would have been good enough for 12th – to a track limit penalty and was officially 16th.

“Same circuit, a week after, hotter conditions compared to what we had last week, so certainly as the track was a lot hotter so the car balance needed to be adjusted,” said Binotto.

“We brought some new parts, new bits, aero, to be tested. So we focussed ourselves on those ones, we focussed on a programme checking the aero maps, we didn’t really have a normal Friday programme on our side.

“We kept for example two mediums tyres instead of going straight or soon onto softs, because we were looking for consistency and back-to-back tests.

“In the end the lap times for us were not too important, it was more important to really analyse the data, understand if the parts are working as expected, and if we are moving forward in terms of performance.”

Binotto suggested that when the focus moves to set-up, the overall performance will be improved. At the moment Vettel is more comfortable with the changes than Leclerc.

“I think our set-up today was not perfect, I suppose because it was hotter than last week, and second because the new parts need to be understood, and somehow we need to adapt the set-up.

“We need to work the rest of the week on our set-up in order to optimise the balance and the car performance.

“Different conditions as I said, because it was hotter. Sebastian wasn’t comfortable during the last race, he said that somehow the car was undriveable.

“I think that today he was a lot more comfortable, he got the right feeling from the car, from the rear of the car in braking. A direct comparison for him was difficult, but certainly he was a lot more comfortable with the car.

“On the other side I think Charles was not too happy with the car balance and the set-up today. While we were working on aero comparison we didn’t work much on trying to improve his balance and set-up. So it’s a mixed feeling, because on his side we would have improved, but we didn’t.”


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