Charles Leclerc did not enjoy a good day in the office at the Monaco Grand Prix. After snatching pole at his home race, a driveshaft hub failure, which may or may not be related to his qualifying crash, sidelined him from the race. Of course, since he had nothing else better to do for a couple of hours, he had a variety of options.

Leclerc could have easily gone home or done a Kimi Raikkonen and hijack a yacht to watch the race. Instead, he chose to stay back in the Ferrari garage and watch the race. By extension, he also acted as a cheerleader for teammate Carlos Sainz in the sole surviving Ferrari. In fact, he even joined the outfit at the podium to help celebrate Sainz’s second-place behind Max Verstappen.

Owing to this, team principal Mattia Binotto couldn’t help feeling proud of his young charge’s maturity. According to him, the driver’s behaviour proved that there was a strong team spirit at Maranello. All this was in spite of his and the Italian marquee suffering a difficult 2020 campaign.

“I think very positive is Charles being under the podium,” said Binotto. “It was him showing that he was there to celebrate with Carlos, and celebrating with the team as well. I think that’s very positive, because he’s showing the team spirit we’ve got at the moment.

“We all believe in our project, and we are all convinced that in the future we will become stronger and stronger.”

Ferrari are still positive despite the Charles Leclerc retirement

With both their cars in the top five, this was a golden opportunity for Ferrari to rake in a rich points haul. Sadly, they were dealt a bad hand with Leclerc’s premature retirement, leaving Sainz to fly the flag alone. Nevertheless, the team are still happy with how things turned out at the Principality and there was plenty to smile about.

Binotto continued, “I think there is overall a lot of positives from the weekend. Our first performance of the car here in Monaco. The car was performing well since Thursday, in all sessions. I think that’s certainly positive considering where we were in the past. It shows that the car and the team is developing in the right direction. It is also very positive for Carlos, his first podium with Ferrari.”

Now, Leclerc and Sainz head to the Baku Street Circuit in Azerbaijan next weekend. The Ferrari team are not exactly expecting any miracles, but they will take them when the opportunity arises.

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