Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Albert Park, 2020

Ferrari’s rivals should trust the FIA over power unit settlement – Leclerc

2020 F1 season

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Charles Leclerc says his team’s rivals should accept the FIA’s reasons for not revealing the details of its investigation into Ferrari’s power unit last year.

Seven teams – all of those which do not use Ferrari power units – have criticised the FIA for reaching a settlement with the team despite admitting it had doubts over whether its power unit had been operated legally throughout 2019.

Leclerc, who scored his first two wins for Ferrari in Belgium and Italy last year, said he considers the matter “done” following the FIA’s statement.

“I fully trust my team, that’s for sure and I trust the FIA for making sure everything was OK,” he said. “So for me, it’s done and now I look to the future.”

Asked whether he understand why rival teams had concerns over the FIA settling the matter in secret, Leclerc said: “I understand yes and no, in a way.

“Yes, they also should trust the FIA for doing their work and I think it’s completely understandable that they don’t explain absolutely everything. Because there’s a lot of work also for us on all the parts and obviously if you make them all of this public, then you make all the work that a team has done public and this is for me, understandable.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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18 comments on “Ferrari’s rivals should trust the FIA over power unit settlement – Leclerc”

  1. Charles Leclerc is managed by Nicolas Todt. I fully trust FIA and their president Jean Todt.

    1. :-) YEah, we can trust this exactly as much as we all trusted Mercedes over tyre testing for pirelli a few years back @armchairexpert

  2. Quite right too. I mean, its not as if the FIA have ever shown any kind of preference towards Ferrari or made any bad decisions.

    1. Either leclerc is 1 naive young man. Or he has not watched or read up on the f1 and its goings on in recent and distance past. Lets remove all those involved in oversite because we should trust eachother. We all play by the rules.

      1. petebaldwin (@)
        12th March 2020, 11:13

        What would you expect him to say when asked that question by a journalist? “I can understand why the other teams are annoyed – seems seriously dodgy to me!”

        1. He could say.. That’s what happens with cheaters.. Oh wait.

        2. @petebaldwin – “No comment” should have been deployed here. There are worse things he could have said (“We got away with it.” “Nana nana booboo.” “My friend’s dad said it was okay.”). But few would have been as tone deaf as “Trust us!”

      2. Either leclerc is 1 naive young man. Or he has not watched or read up on the f1

        Or maybe … just maybe … he is employed by Ferrari! Has anyone checked? Anyone looked into who pays his salary? I might be onto something here guys.

        1. A settlement is fine, the problem is if its a SECRET settlement.

    2. @mrfill In fairness, we’re supposed to be able to trust sporting governing bodies to run sports properly and impartially. As suspected errors in judgement go, this is an understandable one to make…

  3. RocketTankski
    12th March 2020, 13:48

    You can’t spell Ferrari without the FIA.
    (otherwise it’s errrr ..)

    1. You can’t spell “errr” either! (you had 1 too many r’s)

      1. ….and I know there shouldn’t be an apostrophe after the r, but “1 to many rs” looked wrong

        1. “1 too many rs”. I’m as bad as you!

  4. I like Charles, but in the circumstance a variation of “no comment” would have been a lot smarter.

  5. “I don’t listen to the words of a 22 year old.”

  6. I really, really wish I could trust the FIA – on anything.

    I want what Charles said in the headline quote to be right. I want to believe the word of my favourite sport’s governing body. But it has failed to deserve that faith in the past. Over the last week or so, the manner in which the FIA has conducted itself suggests that it has broken trust with him, me and with everyone else who needs them to manage their remit properly.

    Sticking to the matter under discussion here, this investigation was supposed to be done, but apparently the FIA can’t even write a press release properly. In so doing it managed to not only imply Ferrari was guilty when the exact wording of the FIA’s press release indicates it is innocent, but also managed to confuse everyone else regarding what they need to do to be eligible to enter an engine into the series (and therefore comply with F1’s regulations). The over-defensive attitude from the FIA after this merely excabarates the situation. (While Charles is right that the FIA can’t give out information about a legal development, it can – or should – also be able to say how teams/manufacturers can avoid a similar pickle as Ferrari has faced for the past few months. You can’t say, “Don’t break this rule” when nobody even knows what rule is at issue, or what interpretation caused the problem).

    I can’t trust the FIA, and I hate that.

    1. @alianora-la-canta as you note, even the basic information about the procedures behind this investigation are being withheld in a way that really should have been made upfront and in a clear manner.

      The combative nature of the FIA’s conduct is reinforcing the impression that they are trying to hide something, and some of the details which are emerging now paint the investigation in a more questionable light. The involvement of Jean Todt, whom we now know was directly involved in the decision over whether or not there should be a private settlement, further complicates the situation.

      On the one hand, as the President of the FIA, you can argue that he is the highest authority within the FIA who could make a decision on this case and should be involved. However, given that Nicolas Todt, Jean’s son, is the personal manager of Charles Leclerc, there is a fair argument to make that Jean has a personal conflict of interest and should not have taken part, but instead delegated his authority to an independent representative of the FIA.

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