Leclerc reveals Monaco nightmare: "Out of four brakes, three were not working"

A Crash With a Cause

Charles Leclerc's Monaco Grand Prix ended in the barriers at Antony Noghès corner, but the Monegasque was in no mood to accept blame — and for very good reason. Running in third position ahead of a safety car restart, Leclerc slid into the wall and immediately got on the radio to make his position clear.

His reasoning, confirmed in detail to journalists after the race, was as damning as it was alarming: a catastrophic brake failure had left him with virtually no ability to slow the car down.

No Way Out

Leclerc described the situation as "a nightmare", and his account made clear that by the time he approached Antony Noghès, there was simply no safe outcome available to him. The failure had emerged after a safety car intervention and deteriorated rapidly, leaving him powerless to manage it through any in-car adjustment.

"As soon as I did the safety car, three of my four brakes stopped working," he explained. "I could never switch them on again, nothing was working anymore. 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."

It was a bleak illustration of Monaco's unforgiving nature — a circuit that had already cost Leclerc dearly earlier in the weekend. He had qualified fourth, citing ongoing braking problems throughout a chaotic Q3, leaving him frustrated even before race day unravelled entirely.

Ferrari Has a Fix

While the investigation into the root cause is still ongoing — with brake wear flagged by Leclerc as a potential factor, given Monaco's historically punishing nature on that front — Ferrari has already identified a solution. From the next race, Leclerc will switch to the same brake configuration currently used by team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

"The only thing I can say is that we have the solution in-house, and I'll go to the Lewis configuration from next race onward, which hopefully will be a step," Leclerc said.

Team principal Fred Vasseur and deputy team principal Jerome d'Ambrosio have both reviewed the data and aligned on the diagnosis.

"Fred and Jerome saw the data, and I think it's very clear for everyone. I don't think there's any doubt," Leclerc added.

Asked whether he had ever experienced anything like this before, the answer was unambiguous: "No, not to that extent. Surely sometimes it's a little bit tricky, but there it was just not possible to go around a corner."

When pressed for any positives from the Monaco weekend, Leclerc's response was dry but pointed: "That I'll have a solution for the brakes next weekend."

Leclerc remains fourth in the Drivers' Championship with 70 points. Hamilton, buoyed by a second-place finish in Monaco, has climbed to second on 90 points.