Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has jumped to the defence of star driver Charles Leclerc, who George Russell believes broke the rules during last weekend’s British Grand Prix.
Leclerc and Russell duelled for fourth in the opening stages of last Sunday’s race, before the Mercedes driver tried to lunge down the Monegasque’s inside at Club corner.
As Russell went for the move Leclerc suddenly changed direction whilst braking, something the British driver immediately complained about.
“If that’s not moving under braking I don’t know what is,” Russell stated over the team radio.
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Leclerc maintained the position and wasn’t penalised by the stewards; however, he was later overtaken by Russell in the second half of the race at the Silverstone International Circuit.
Vasseur wasn’t having any of Russell’s comments after the race and insisted Leclerc’s move was just “life”, with the Frenchman having accused the Mercedes driver of pulling off similar moves earlier in the year.
“Yeah, I can show you some action of the beginning of the season. He did also good ones. That’s life,” insisted Vasseur.
The Ferrari boss was certainly far from happy after the race, as Leclerc finished ninth with Carlos Sainz in 10th.
Leclerc and Sainz finished at the foot of the points places despite having started fourth and fifth, with Vasseur recognising that the team could’ve done a “much better job”.
“I’m not [happy],” said Vasseur.
“Starting from P4 and P5 we had the feeling after quali that we could have done a much better job than this. We can’t be happy finishing P9 and P10, but now we need to have a deep look on the weekend, not just on the race.”
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Ferrari tumbled down the pecking order at the British GP, with both McLaren drivers having finished ahead of Leclerc and Sainz.
Both Ferrari drivers were even beaten by Williams’ Alex Albon, who was blisteringly quick at the Grove-based team’s home race.
The Maranello-based side certainly have a lot of work to do ahead of next weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, in a bid to avoid any future disasters.