Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said both his drivers were at least partly to blame for the collision which put both Ferraris out of the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The stewards are investigating the collision between Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc on the approach to turn four.“[They were] free to fight, but they know that silly mistakes are something we should avoid for the team itself,” Binotto told Sky. “Today it has been a very small contact, I have to say, but there will be time to analyse, there will be time to look at the video, I don’t want to do that in the heat [of the moment].”
Leclerc, who was on fresher tyres, overtook Vettel into turn one. Vettel tried to re-pass his team mate after turn three but touched his team mate’s front-right suspension, which snapped immediately, and left Vettel with a puncture.
“I think both of them at least have a small percentage of responsibility,” said Binotto.
“I feel sorry for the team. I think the drivers need to feel sorry for the team because at the end they were free to fight I think our second position [in the] constructors is given so they were battling for their own position in the drivers’ championship
Leclerc had fresher tyres than Vettel when they collided, having saved one set of new soft tyres after qualifying. Vettel did not have any unused sets of softs.
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“He had no new tyres so he had no choice in that respect,” Binotto confirmed, adding he felt the collision cost Ferrari a potential podium finish.
“Normally our race pace in the last races were not as good as we want, a couple of tenths maybe behind. It’s not a drama but we know that we are not yet fast enough in the race and to win you need the best car in the race.
“We got a good race today. If there was not a drama I think we could have fought, certainly for the podium. Sebastian was faster than Lewis [and] was faster than Albon.”
Vettel gave further insight into the incident, pointing out he had saved some of his battery to attack his team mate after being passed by him.
“Obviously we were fighting ourselves in the chicane quite aggressively. I then had a better exit out of turn two, three and a lot more battery left and I thought I was already past. I don’t know why we touched.”
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BlueChris (@bluechris)
17th November 2019, 20:39
Vettel m8 you never know why you touch lately or why you spin alone etc. You were not alongside and its your responsibility to have clear distance from the defending car.
Only Facts!
17th November 2019, 20:47
Obviously…
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
17th November 2019, 20:50
dude what? if your rear wheel hits the others front you are pretty _ well alongside, yeah, the defending car at this stage is pretty much overtaken-
was it clever? no. does seb make silly mistakes? yeah. but the amount of grief he gets on here is just utterly ridiculous.
those red bull years really must have hurt some people….
Todfod (@todfod)
18th November 2019, 16:57
@mrboerns
That’s the point isn’t it? If he was ahead of Lecerlc then he could have moved to the left, but if he wasn’t, he would move to the left and make contact exactly like how he did in Turkey 2010, Singapore 2017 and even Mexico 2019.
I dont know how anyone cannit assign the whole blame for this incident on Vettel.
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
18th November 2019, 22:56
@todfod i could live with that definition. However, people were arguing f.e. verstappen was right to push lec wide at Austria because *he was ahead and it was his corner*
so how was this not sebs line?
believe me i would prefer fair sportsmanlike racing, but this is the reality this sport has created and tbh it was kinda dumb from both of them, nur considering he was kinda holding all trumps here AND showed he uses the same tactics in this very race i’d say leclerc made the dumber mistake.
i mean vettel basically had this one shot so it was now or never for him. leclerc had time on his side. stupid.
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
18th November 2019, 22:59
also leclerc might actually care about 3rd in the wdc which seb definately doesn’t.
elio (@elio)
17th November 2019, 21:02
You’re right, Vettel wasn’t alongside. He was actually *AHEAD* when they touched.
Said
17th November 2019, 22:03
Problem is he veered to the left when overtaking Leclerc whereas Leclerc was basicially going straight. He was too impatiant, probably vexed by Charles move and must have known better (he is the 4xWdc after all)
frood19 (@frood19)
18th November 2019, 12:12
@elio just because he’s ahead (not fully past) does not mean he can veer to the left. it’s not like they were braking for the corner, this was on a straight. leclerc has every right to keep going in a straight line and he left enough room for vettel to do the same. this is precisely what happened in turkey 2010 – vettel pulled ahead of (but not fully past) webber who kept going in a straight line, as is his right, when vettel veered into him. both crashes are entirely vettel’s fault and totally unnecessary as he would have passed if he’d kept his steering wheel straight.
elio (@elio)
17th November 2019, 21:14
This was a fraction of a sec before they banged wheels. “Alongside” ?! Yeah right.
elio (@elio)
17th November 2019, 21:15
Nick (@nick101)
17th November 2019, 23:50
Maybe we should ask Mark Webber who he thinks was at fault…🤣
Blaize Falconberger (@)
17th November 2019, 20:49
Binotto stating the bleedin’ obvious but also avoiding the bleedin’ obvious… VET is a liability and cannot be trusted.
David BR (@david-br)
17th November 2019, 21:53
@timeslides When Leclerc got past Vettel but Vettel picked up DRS and came back, I thought ‘crash.’ It’s just so predictable.
Ferrari being beaten to 3rd place in the WDC despíte having the fastest car for much of the season will be ridiculous, even with all Verstappen’s talent. They’ve again thrown away buckets of points.
elio (@elio)
18th November 2019, 12:10
Fastest car doesn’t mean best car.
Truth is, despiste having a (very) slight power advantage over the Merc engine this season, the Ferrari car is still quite unbalanced, hard on its tyres and is overall an inferior car compared to Mercedes and Red Bull.
It may fight for victories in power circuits and stand out in quick, single laps. But in pure race pace is behind their main contenderes.
Neil (@neilosjames)
17th November 2019, 20:49
Thought it was a lot more Vettel’s fault than Leclerc’s. He did the Istanbul Squeeze again…
F1oSaurus (@)
17th November 2019, 20:50
“I don’t know why we touched.”
This proves he’s unfit to be on F1 really. How can he not understand that moving 3 meters to the left (with a car less than half a meter away) is going to cause a colission?
Again! He’s had at least 5 of these incidents. Still he keeps causing them.
Shocking that Binoto puts any blame on Leclerc. At least he should tell Vettel to end all the blundering. Otherwise it will never stop.
GtisBetter (@)
17th November 2019, 21:00
He will say these things, but not to a reporter. He is just doing PR now, which is smart. No use to generate even more headlines, the papers in italy already will have a field day with this
Bulgarian (@bulgarian)
17th November 2019, 20:54
I blame F1 stewards for this collision. Vettel should have been penalised already in Mexican GP for his dirty manouvre against Hamilton at the start. Lewis Hamilton sayd being squeezed by Sebastian Vettel at the start of the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix risked a “big collision”… here we are 2 races later…
Klon (@)
17th November 2019, 21:01
That’s literally all that needs to be said on this. Anyone who harps on about whomever’s fault this is misses the point. If you can’t race your teammate without crashing, then don’t race your teammate, even if the crashes are never your fault.
JohnNik (@johnnik)
17th November 2019, 21:08
Seriously?
VET turned in on LEC. LEC if anything was pulling slightly left.
Now VET has forced an accident, you say LEC isn’t allowed to race him? Maybe he should just sit in the grandstand with a sandwich?
Postreader
18th November 2019, 0:25
It’s just a bit wheel to wheel racing that has gone bad because of a split-second contact at a poor angle. Both pilots were leaning left but at a certain point, one wasn’t as much as the other for whatever reason. Vettel had the racing line and was well within track boundaries, so I can see it as a racing incident unless you believe Vettel wanted not to overtake but take Leclerc out of the race.
carbon_fibre (@carbon_fibre)
17th November 2019, 21:03
I knew Binotto would say this and I’m not the least bit satisfied. Leclerc was not to blame for this whatsoever.
BlueChris (@bluechris)
17th November 2019, 21:04
Vettel cannot accept that leclerc is even in speed and in his mind there is his last red bul season where he was beated by a new faster teammate and this year try to avoid this and doing risky moves.
I cannot believe he is incompetent but maybe he is? I don’t really know.
Ferrari needs to man up and bring Riciardo in his place or even bring back Alonso.
Todfod (@todfod)
18th November 2019, 17:05
@bluechris
I completely agree about replacing Vettel. He’s an overpaid and underperforming driver. He’s got a prima dona’s sense of entitlement despite having the talent of a #2 driver. If it wasn’t for Ferrari gifting him a win in Singapore, he would have finished this season winless, even though he had the car to win at least 6 or 7 races this season. The guy’s barely a race winner… And a champion at throwing championships away.
They should dump him in the off season and get a compliant #2 driver who can back Leclerc’s title chase for 2020.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
17th November 2019, 21:29
How have I only just realised how much Mattia Binotto looks like Egon Spengler from Ghostbusters?
NS Biker (@rekibsn)
17th November 2019, 22:05
Hope he likes Marshmallows.
Blame either or both of the drivers if you like, but my take is this sort of thing comes down to Team Management.
You win as a Team and you loose as a Team.
No one likes team orders, but with the money, careers and notoriety at stake, you have to do it in some form.
This one has been creeping up all season and Vettel has a well known history of just what happened today.
I would say the blame rests with Binotto and if there is a price to be paid, he will be the one on the block.
Yes the drivers can race, but NO ONE runs into a Team Mate and passing a Team Mate is always coordinated through management.
Man …. wouldn’t it be great to be a fly on the wall during the de-brief.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
17th November 2019, 21:42
After this move. What do we say? Vettel is back to his incident ridden ways?
Leclerc did what 10-15 clean battles for position, brilliant moves driving side by side over 4-6 corners, excellent allaround.
But not a simple highway pass, that was to hard for those two. They rather put it all on the line than give an inch against their teammate. This is why they will be 4th and 5th. The only driver line up that has two alpha drivers.
And one of them tends to have an incident every few races. Rest of the race Vettel was brilliant. I hate how this unfolded. But we can only have him to blame, considering it always happens to him and with such high frequency. Maybe he should see that therapist Grosjean was seeing.
BoRa (@bnwllc3)
18th November 2019, 6:16
The worst point of this collision is the attitute of “team boss”. He thinks both drivers are responsible and he thinks (just) Vettel is faster than Hamilton and Albon at this stage.
It’s really mindblowing that he still keeps the back of Vettel. Come on guys, it is like white and black clear that Vettel is the responsible of this crash. Ferrari spend too much money on Vettel, and I’m sure it’s very hard to accept that all that money is spent for “this”.