Ferrari brake supplier Brembo has publicly challenged Charles Leclerc’s claim that brake failure caused his dramatic late-race Monaco Grand Prix crash.
Local favourite Leclerc had been in the hunt for a podium finish at the Monte Carlo street race but crashed at the final corner as the drivers geared up for the restart on Lap 66 after a Safety Car period.
Brembo challenges Charles Leclerc’s brake failure explanation
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It was the second crash in seven laps at the Antony Noghes corner, prompting Race Control to red flag the race as the tarmac was breaking up on the outside of the corner.
“I’m not even going to take the blame,” an angry Leclerc told Ferrari on the radio. “These f***ing brakes!”
Leclerc, though, insisted it was neither the tarmac nor a mistake on his part that caused the crash. It was his Ferrari’s brakes.
“Out of the four brakes, I had three brakes not working. So, in a Formula One car, it’s never a good thing,” he told PlanetF1.com and other media in Monaco.
“The front left was working well, the front right was half working, and the two rear brakes were not working at all.
“And when I say at all, on data there’s no deceleration at all. It’s like I don’t know, the calipers were not on the car, so it’s a little bit of an issue.”
He declared that at the next race, the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, he would use his teammate Lewis Hamilton’s braking solution.
According to reports, Hamilton is using brake discs made by Carbon Industries, the supplier he used for years as a Mercedes driver, but the calipers come from Brembo.
“The only thing I can say,” added Leclerc, “is that we have a solution in-house, and I’ll go to Lewis’ configuration from next race on, which hopefully will be a step.”
Brembo accuses Leclerc of drawing ‘premature’ conclusion
Brembo, though, is not happy with Leclerc laying the blame on his brakes.
Declaring it to be “premature” given no investigation had been carried out, Brembo responded to Leclerc’s comments with a strong statement.
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“Brembo Group is really surprised by the statements made by Charles Leclerc after F1’s Monaco Grand Prix,” it read.
“The partnership between Brembo and Scuderia Ferrari has continued for more than 50 years and also extends to other brands within the Group, including AP Racing clutches and Ohlins dampers, confirming the strength and breadth of this long-standing collaboration.
“At present, the company does not know the causes of the issues experienced by Charles Leclerc and therefore considers it premature to draw definitive technical conclusions before the available data has been analysed.
“In cases such as this, it is necessary to examine the telemetry data together with the team’s engineers in order to accurately determine the origin of the incident.
“Brembo is a benchmark in F1 and is present on every car on the grid through its braking technologies. Over the years, F1 teams have continued to choose Brembo solutions, recognising their reliability, innovation and world-class performance.
“The group will continue to invest in innovation, reliability and performance, while continuing its collaboration with Scuderia Ferrari and all other F1 teams.”
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Originally published by Planet F1 —
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