Binotto preferred not to watch the last three rounds because of Leclerc's problem

What could possibly prevent Charles Leclerc to win this time? After the engine problems of Barcelona and Baku, after the start from the back of the grid in Canada, after the strategic errors of Ferrari in Monaco and at Silverstone, we believed that this time it would be the recalcitrant accelerator pedal, which instead of normally returning to zero when Charles released it, remained depressed at around 30%... A handicap which allowed Max Verstappen to reduce the gap and melt away at the very end of the race, even if Leclerc was able to cross the line vainqueur.

“It was very stressful, conceded the Monegasque. My accelerator pedal was behaving strangely, staying depressed at I don't know how many percent in the middle of corners. It was particularly tense at turn 3, because it's clearly a corner where you don't want any mid-corner acceleration. It was quite difficult to manage, not so much in the fast corners but in the slow ones. However, we managed to bring the car all the way back, so that's great. »

Binotto: “I clearly stopped watching the race three laps from the end”

This was obviously tricky, but Leclerc did not panic, with the help of his engineer Xavier Marcos. For Mattia Binotto, on the wall, being a spectator was particularly difficult to manage, to the point that he ended up admitting to having taken his eyes away from the screens. “At the end I was extremely nervous, recognized Mattia Binotto in relation to the mechanical problem plaguing the No. 16 car. I'm not going to lie, I definitely stopped watching the race with three laps to go. Fortunately, Charles was able to handle the problem, because he is a champion. »

Despite a problem with his pedal, Leclerc helped Ferrari win in Austria. © DPPI

The Scuderia remains on two victories in a row after that won by Carlos Sainz on the Silverstone side. But the explosion of the Spaniard's engine and this small mechanical problem with the pedal for Leclerc in Austria show that the Ferrari still has work to do in terms of reliability. That's good, the summer break is coming in three weeks and will allow the technical district of Maranello to look in more detail at the lifespan of its engines. If it really wants to have a say in both championships, Ferrari will need to take a huge step forward on this front.

ALSO READ > Austrian Grand Prix: Leclerc masterful, AUTOhebdo notes