Ferrari brake supplier “really surprised” by Charles Leclerc’s Monaco F1 outburst

The Ferrari Formula 1 team’s longtime brake supplier Brembo is “really surprised” by Charles Leclerc’s complaints after his Monaco Grand Prix crash.

The Monegasque driver highlighted brake issues in Canada and again through the weekend of his home race.

After he crashed out at the safety car restart, he made his frustration clear, noting in a TV interview that he’d been made to look “like an idiot.”

He also suggested that for the next race in Spain he will switch to a brake arrangement already used successfully by team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

"Out of the four brakes, I had three brakes not working,” Charles Leclerc said when asked by Crash.net about his issues.

“So, in a Formula 1 car, it's never a good thing. And yeah, 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, data there's no deceleration at all. It's like I don't know, the callipers were not even in the car, so it's a little bit of an issue.

“The only thing I can say is that we have the solution in-house, and I'll go to Lewis's configuration from next race onwards, which hopefully will be a step. But yeah, it's been a nightmare.”

He further explained that the brakes had caught him out and triggered his crash at the safety car restart.

Leclerc is usually more cautious when discussing technical issues in public, and the fact that he went into such detail reflects just how upset he was after his retirement.

Brembo responded on Monday morning with a statement issued to Crash.net, stressing that it was not clear what the issues were.

“Brembo Group is really surprised by the statements made by Charles Leclerc after F1 Monaco GP,” the company said.

“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.”

The company stressed that its products are used successfully up and down the pitlane: “Today, 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.”

At the time of writing, Ferrari had yet to comment on Brembo’s statement.