Big Trouble Brewing for Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc After Being Summoned to Ferrari F1’s Headquarters for Debrief

Published 11/19/2019, 2:03 PM EST

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At this point, somebody should simply stand outside the Ferrari garage and play the Jaws theme. Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc caused a lot of carnage during the Brazilian Grand Prix 2019.

Clearly fed up with his warring drivers, Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has brought down the hammer. In other words, both Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc have been summoned to the main headquarters in Maranello.

The trigger was Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas, who ground to a smoky halt, bringing out the safety car. At the restart, Leclerc, on fresher tyres got the run on Vettel on the main straight and passed him. Clearly not taking it lying down, the German fought back on the back straight, with the aid of DRS.

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It was a fairly standard move, as Vettel got ahead and slammed the door shut. The bad news was that he executed the move a touch too early, and their wheels touched. The end result was a dramatic failure on Leclerc’s front right and Sebastian Vettel with a puncture. Both retired immediately, handing Ferrari their first scoreless race since Singapore 2017.

via Imago

“I have not reviewed yet, I don’t want to do it yet, I think doing things in the heat [of the moment] we may have the wrong conclusion,” said Binotto.

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Binotto confirmed that he heard the explanations from both drivers, but they will travel to Maranello. The Italian outlined that the incident will be discussed again and the team will analyse all the video and the data.

He continued, “Whatever will be the judgement, more important is we are disappointed and sorry for the team, but first the two drivers should be sorry for the team as it has been a very small crash with big consequences, but they are silly things that should not happen.”

“It’s a matter of recognising eventually what have been the actions and mistakes. It’s important, because that can only make you better.”

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“There will be time altogether at Maranello to understand what happened. It’s not [for] me to blame them, it’s [for] them to recognise it.”

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Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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