Ferrari won’t “gamble” on Leclerc’s gearbox after F1 qualifying shunt

Leclerc turned in a stunning lap to beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to a shock pole at his home race in Monaco, before suffering a hefty crash exiting Swimming Pool chicane that brought the session to a premature end.

The Monegasque admitted after qualifying that he was worried about the damage sustained to his wrecked Ferrari, knowing that a change of gearbox would result in a grid drop for Sunday’s race.

But Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto stressed his side will not take any reliability risks despite Leclerc achieving the Maranello squad’s first pole since the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix.

“No, we will not gamble,” Binotto said after qualifying.

“I think for us what's important after such a quali is to try to maximise the number of points for the championship, and obviously to maximise we need to finish the race.

“So reliability is key, reliability remains the priority. If we have any doubts, we will certainly change and fix it.”

While Binotto said he has “no idea” how significant the damage to Leclerc’s gearbox is, he expects the team to have an answer by Saturday evening.

A five-place grid penalty for a new gearbox would relegate Leclerc to sixth place and subsequently promote Verstappen onto pole.

“It’s always a shame crashing a car,” Binotto added.

“Disappointed as well, I think the whole team somehow was disappointed not for the crash but because we believed Carlos could have done better overall and we felt that could have been the case.

“So, as a team we could have maybe done even better today and so we feel a bit disappointed for that.”