Charles Leclerc says Ferrari is benefitting from stability after it rejected reports claiming team principal Mattia Binotto’s job was at risk.
Ferrari put out a statement on Tuesday describing reports in Italian media that Binotto’s place could be taken by Alfa Romeo team principal Frederic Vasseur as “rumours” that were “totally without foundation.”
“It’s not great to read these things,” said Leclerc in response to a question from RaceFans yesterday. “So I think it’s good that the team has cleared the air, and hopefully we can focus 100% on this last weekend.”
Some reports suggested Leclerc has grown frustrated with the team following a series of questionable tactical calls. The most recent of these occured at Interlagos last week when the team opted to send him out for the start of Q3 on intermediate tyres while the track was still dry, a decision Binotto admitted was a “mistake.”
But Leclerc said he believes the team’s current set-up will continue to deliver improvements in performance. “I think stability is paying off,” he said. “We’ve been showing in the last few years that we are improving.
“There’s another step that we need to do but we are working on that and I’m sure we’ll achieve that.”
He said he paid no attention to the rumours around Binotto, who has been in charge at Ferrari since 2019, Leclerc’s first season at the team. “There are always rumours around Formula 1, and especially around Ferrari, and this doesn’t change,” he said.
“Obviously, when we are getting to the end of the season, there are always voices around us. But I think as a team, we really need to focus on our job and on track, try to extract all of the things that are happening around the team.”
Leclerc won two of the first three races this season. These were the team’s first victories since 2019, following which it slumped badly in 2020 and began to recover the year after.
“People tend to forget how big of a step we’ve done from last year to this year,” said Leclerc. “There’s definitely another step that we need to do but I am sure that we’ll do it all together, and starting with this race, hopefully to finish on a high this season.
“But apart from that, there’s nothing more to say. I don’t think we should give too much attention to that.”
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