Mattia Binotto says he has sought assurances from his two drivers that their race-ending collision in the Brazilian Grand Prix will not be repeated.
Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc tangled while battling over fourth place in the race at Interlagos. Binotto met with both at the team’s Maranello base following the crash.Speaking in today’s FIA press conference, Binotto refused to be drawn on the details of their discussion.
“There are no answers here,”he said. It’s something we discussed internally.
“They are both very good drivers, they know exactly what to do. I think it has been unfortunate what happened but it will not happen again.”
Binotto said he was not interested in apportioning blame to either of the two.
“Is one driver more to blame than the other? I think it’s not important. Because clearly that time it could have been maybe Seb next time will be Charles.
“They are two drivers fighting, they can both of them make mistakes. At the end what’s important is to make sure that whether it’s the one in Brazil, or the next time, it’s not happening again.
“And again, I don’t think there is much to discuss. That’s something which is between our factory, between us, something we discussed.”
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Ninjenius (@ninjenius)
29th November 2019, 13:18
If Vettel had (quite rightly) publicly accepted what is widely considered to be his larger share of the blame, then Mattia would at least be able to say “Seb has accepted primary responsibility for the incident, but we remind both drivers about the importance of the team etc etc…”
Seb’s stubbornness has made Mattia’s time with the media far more difficult than it needs to be.
Matteo (@m-bagattini)
29th November 2019, 14:20
@ninjenius what is the purpose of the Ferrari team manager in blaming one or the other? You can’t change the past. Blaming Vettel publicly would have unintended consequences: it would mean taking the parts of a driver, dividing the whole team in half. Binotto took the Ferrari side, pulling a line between the whole team and the two drivers, leaving them alone with the consequences of their actions. The pilots must be accountable to the team. Creating two factions (or feeding existing ones) would be of no help.
Ninjenius (@ninjenius)
29th November 2019, 14:26
@m-bagattini I’m not saying that Binotto should blame one or the other. Just that he would make his life easier by being able to say that one of his drivers has already taken the lions share of the blame and thus his opinion doesn’t matter. That’s my point.
pastaman (@)
29th November 2019, 14:12
I think the real reason teams don’t want their drivers to crash into each other is so that they don’t have to be hounded by the media for weeks getting asked the same question hundreds of times.
Andy Bunting (@wildbiker)
29th November 2019, 14:38
In his dreams! Bless him!
There’s delusional, aka SV always in denial.
Then there’s Matteo! Deluded!
MEGATRON M12 (@megatron)
29th November 2019, 15:27
Vettel will crash into his teammate again (for at least the 7th time), and I will laugh. Glad he doesn’t drive for my favorite team.
F1oSaurus (@)
29th November 2019, 17:06
@megatron
Indeed this always baffles me. To be honest, I’m also glad he’s messing things up for Ferrari. Not a fan of that team at all after all the FIArari foul play together with Mosley from ’97 to 2005.
Yet you’d expect Ferrari fans to be livid that Vettel has bumbled away 2 good chances of winning the WDC. Plus that again this season he’s making way too many mistakes for a team with WDC aspirations. Yet they actually defend him!
On the other hand, it would be nice if there was an actual championship battle and not just Hamilton easily taking the WDC against a driver who blunders away his chances over and over.
David BR (@david-br)
29th November 2019, 17:07
Team bosses are worse than politicians. Translating: Vettel was ‘clearly’ to blame, but we’ll let that pass as Charles might do similar in the future, but it won’t happen in the future because… I’m the boss and what I say shouldn’t happen, won’t happen.
Combined with Leclerc’s brilliant comment that he could have done a better job of making Vettel not veer left into him, this seems like a PR exercise to cover up the fact Vettel was blamed by the team.
PeterF
29th November 2019, 20:47
Famous last words
BaKano (@bakano)
30th November 2019, 7:23
Their crash in Interlagos 2019 won’t happen again. That’s certain. But a crash at Yas Marina 2019 might. Or a crash in Interlagos 2020 😄.
Also another “certainty” might be that they will not crash on a straight…
Bruno Verrari
30th November 2019, 10:50
Bravo. Vai Verrari!!!