Is The Charles Leclerc Crash Ferrari’s Fault? Nico Rosberg Thinks So.

Charles Leclerc didn’t exactly have a great Saturday where his qualifying run was concerned. For someone who had topped the earlier practise run, crashing into the wall at the tricky Turn 8 when he seemed to destined to finish at the front of the grid sucked real bad. But such is life and Charles Leclerc decided to rightly take the blame on himself.

He was soon found exasperated over the radio, suggesting that it was totally ‘my’ fault and that no one else but he were to be blamed for the qualifying accident, one that actually brought the Qualifying at Baku to be red-flagged.

At the end of the day, Bottas clinched the pole, followed closely by Hamilton, who seemed would gather the pole with the only Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel running in the third to salvage some pride for the Scuderia Stable.

Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc would cut a low-key figure, watching over the proceedings from the Ferrari garage would note that apart from there being nothing special for him as far as the grid stacking was concerned, he would have to begin tenth, behind Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen.

So much for one wrong move, right?

But hold your horses. Former 2016 World Champion Nico Rosberg feels that Charles Leclerc’s crash on Saturday was down to Ferrari’s fault and not Leclerc’s.

So what’s this all about?

Nico Rosberg duly noted as did millions around the world following the qualifying that Charles Leclerc crashed into the castle complex at the Baku street circuit, a point up to which the Monegasque driver was the fastest on-track all weekend.

Furthermore, the German driver shared, “In Quali 2, they decided they’re going to be even smarter and put on the hard (medium) tyre, because they thought ‘if we start the race on the harder tyre, that’s going to give us even more benefits because we’re so fast anyway.’

And that’s not all. Continuing his no-holds-barred perspective on the Mattia Binotto-led side, Rosberg went on to add, “It’s like over-confidence, I don’t know. It just went completely pear-shaped for them from that moment on.”

The experienced former Mercedes driver happened to share that you would much rather avoid the strategy that Ferrari gambled with on a street circuit. This isn’t what one’s supposed to do. He was also of the view that Charles Leclerc crashed onto the barrier because the medium tyre lacked the grip he may have needed to continue his charge.

That said, is Rosberg right on his assessment of the Scuderia Ferrari strategy? While surely a front row start opportunity was missed out on, it can’t be denied that Leclerc can possibly have a go early into the race at Raikkonen, who’s in a less powerful car- albeit Ferrari-supplied- when compared to the Ferrari no.16.