Brembo expresses "great astonishment" over Leclerc's Monaco brake failure claims

Brake supplier Brembo has fired back at Charles Leclerc following the Monegasque driver's explosive radio outburst and post-race comments blaming his Monaco Grand Prix retirement on a catastrophic brake failure — calling his statements "premature" and expressing "great astonishment" at how quickly the blame was assigned.

A race unravelled at Antony Noghès

His rage was immediate and unfiltered on the team radio. "Honestly, I'm not even going to take the **** blame. These **** brakes!"

"Three out of four brakes not working"

Speaking to the media after retiring from the race, Leclerc laid out the scale of the alleged failure in stark terms. "Out of the four brakes, I had three brakes not working. So in a Formula 1 car, it's never a good thing," he said.

"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, it's that on data there's no deceleration at all. It's like the calipers were not even in the car."

The safety car period, he explained, was the critical trigger. "As long as I was doing consecutive laps, it was inconsistent, but there was none of those problems, at least to that extent. The problem was the safety car. As soon as I did the safety car, three of my four brakes stopped working. I could never switch them on again, nothing was working anymore."

With no way to brake effectively into the final corner, the outcome was inevitable. "I tried to do many actions in the car to try and help it. The only solution I had was to not brake in the last corner, but I would have crashed in Turn 1. There was just no solution."

For the full account of Leclerc's Monaco nightmare, read our dedicated race report on the brake failure.

Brembo pushes back

Brembo, Ferrari's long-standing brake supplier, was swift to respond. In an official statement, the company acknowledged the situation but took clear exception to the speed and tone of Leclerc's public assessment.

"The Brembo Group expresses great astonishment regarding what happened to Charles Leclerc during the Monaco Grand Prix and is very surprised by the statements made by the driver after the race," the company wrote.

Reaffirming the depth of the relationship with Scuderia Ferrari, Brembo noted that "the partnership between Brembo and Scuderia Ferrari has been ongoing for over 50 years and also extends to other brands within the group, such as AP Racing clutches and Ohlins shock absorbers, confirming the solidity and breadth of the collaboration."

The supplier made clear it had not yet been able to determine the root cause. "The company is currently unaware of the causes of the problems encountered by Charles Leclerc and therefore believes it is premature to make definitive technical assessments before analysing the available data. In cases like this, it is indeed necessary to examine the telemetry data alongside the team's engineers to pinpoint the exact origin of the incident."

Leclerc, however, was unequivocal that the data left no room for ambiguity. "It's very clear. I think Fred [Vasseur] and Jerome [d'Ambrosio] saw the data, and I think it's very clear for everyone. I don't think there's any doubt."

Fix already in place for Barcelona

Despite the public dispute, Leclerc was adamant that a solution had already been identified ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona-Catalunya. "We have the solution in-house, and I'll go to the Lewis configuration from next race onward," he confirmed.

A paddock rumour has also emerged suggesting that Hamilton may currently be running Carbone Industrie brakes, a relationship developed during his time at Mercedes — though this has never been officially confirmed by Ferrari or the driver.