F1 | Ferrari, Binotto: “The result of Charles' race is the result of external circumstances”

Mattia Binotto has a lot of trouble after the “Silverstone gate”. What happened in the race in Great Britain between the two Ferrari drivers is now known: Carlos Sainz started from pole, but with rhythm problems during the race, Charles Leclerc, who suffered damage at the start and started leading the race up to the Safety Car. Ferrari attempted to calm the minds of the two drivers, in particular Leclerc, who requested a team order in the initial stages of the race due to his teammate being too slow. After some attempts, Ferrari gives the OK for the fight, not a real team order and the Monegasque takes the lead. The two clash with Hamilton and chase the one-two, but the Safety Car caused by Ocon's retirement ruins everything: Ferrari calls only the pole man to the pits, leaving Leclerc to the wolves on the now worn hard tyres. Yet another radio communication: the team asks Sainz to leave a lot of space between him and his teammate to defend Charles' victory, but Carlos begs the team not to do so. And so he overtakes his teammate, mauled by Perez and Hamilton, to chase his first career victory. Ferrari returns to winning after two months of fasting, again with a Spaniard ten years after the last time with Alonso. There will be many controversies, outside and inside the pits. Sainz's joy is palpable as much as Leclerc's disappointment.

"It's important for us to win again. Charles, it's true, also missed an opportunity for the world championship, he would have won if it hadn't been for the Safety Car. I talked to him about it, Ocon could have stopped on an escape route, but Charles was in front and was about to win – said team principal Mattia Binotto – he did well, he showed his worth and fourth place is well deserved. Surely more could have been done today, there is bitterness, but this result is the result of external circumstances. We didn't opt ​​for the double pit stop because there wasn't enough distance between the two cars, by stopping both Carlos would have lost further positions. We decided to stop only Carlos, because Charles was in the lead at that moment and had fresher tyres, and Carlos would still have been behind him at the restart to protect him at least in the first corners. We hoped, and were convinced, that the softs would immediately show some degradation, and Charles would be able to recover positions. It didn't happen that way, but it was a rational choice. 

"There won't be anything to say about the team radio to Carlos at the end of the Safety Car, I think he was very good today and we knew that with the hard tires it would be a difficult restart – continues Binotto – we asked Carlos to do what he could, he understood, but he also knew that they would be aggressive behind it. He also gave up the position without problems at the beginning, this is his spirit and I think there is nothing to take back from this. I told Leclerc that he made a mistake, he has to look ahead, but we'll talk about it later, when things have calmed down. 

"The Mercedes and Red Bulls were very fast today, it was a great show, but the fight will be close in Austria too. We will try to do our best, they will too, but we hope to repeat ourselves at the Red Bull Ring too".