Ferrari's brakes supplier, Brembo, has issued a statement in response to Charles Leclerc's impassioned criticism of his brakes following his crash at the Monaco Grand Prix. The Monegasque driver was visibly frustrated after retiring from his home race on Sunday, having driven his Ferrari into the barrier at the final corner of the Monte Carlo street circuit.
The accident led to a suspension of the race as the track surface began to break up in that section. Shortly before Leclerc's crash, Lance Stroll had also hit the barrier at the same location, and onboard camera replays from both cars suggested that the loose surface may have been a contributing factor.
However, Leclerc was adamant that his brakes, which he described as "borderline dangerous," were the primary cause. He fumed: "It was the brakes. It doesn't help to have the asphalt coming off, but the data speaks for itself. It's extremely frustrating. I think I've always been very honest and no matter how many mistakes I make, I hate to look at myself in the mirror and see myself making excuses when I do a mistake, so that's why I'm always bluntly honest when I'm in front of cameras. But I'm not going to take any of the blame today. The amount... It's not even braking - I touched the brakes and there's just something with those front brakes, it just braked a lot more than I wanted and the rears, there was no deceleration. It was like I had no rear brakes at all. That's what I'm dealing with for two races now... Today I look like an idiot."
In a separate interview, Leclerc called the situation "just not acceptable," claiming that "three of my four brakes stopped working" when the safety car was deployed, as temperatures dropped and he struggled to get them warm and operational again.
Brembo's Response
Ferrari's long-time brakes supplier, Brembo, appeared sufficiently concerned by Leclerc's public comments to release a statement of its own. The statement read: "Brembo Group is really surprised by the statements made by Charles Leclerc after F1's Monaco Grand Prix. 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."
Leclerc's Solution
Leclerc's teammate, Lewis Hamilton, encountered no such brake issues and finished the Grand Prix in second place. With the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix approaching, Leclerc offered some hope that the problem would not persist, as he already knows what he wants to do to fix it. He said: "The only thing I can say is that we have a solution in-house. I'll go in Lewis' direction from the next race onwards, and that will solve the issues that I deal with. Maybe Lewis' configuration has other issues, but I just need consistency at this point. That's it."
