Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto is certain the boos against Max Verstappen after the FIA race were for finishing behind the safety car
For a long time Max Verstappen looked like the sure winner at the Italian Grand Prix before Daniel Ricciardo in the McLaren retired just before the end, parking his MCL36 awkwardly between the two Lesmos and triggering a safety car period.
Public favourite, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, was already hopelessly in second place some 17 seconds behind Verstappen before the stoppage, but the neutralisation of the race meant that the Monegasque might have a chance of his second Monza win after all with the Ferrari’s better top speed.
But when it became clear that the recovery operation of Ricciardo’s McLaren was taking so long that the Italian Grand Prix would not be restarted with the clarification of the safety car rules after Abu Dhabi 2021, the tifosi’s excitement was high.
Binotto condemns boos: “Max deserved victory “
The fans felt robbed of Ferrari’s chance of a home win and so booed race winner Max Verstappen in the Red Bull as he crossed the finish line behind the safety car, while Leclerc also expressed disappointment at finishing second.
On the podium, too, there was a big chorus of boos towards world champion Verstappen, but Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto suspects behind it only a conspiracy of the Tifosi against the FIA, who saw race winner Verstappen as a symbol of the race’s failure to restart.
“Booing a driver is never good, especially Max who was the fastest driver on the track today and deserved to win,” Binotto said. “So that’s not good, but I think the boos from our tifosi were more for the FIA. “
Why a Leclerc win would have been unlikely even with a restart
“The reason is that the tifosi and the people out there think that the safety car could have been switched off before and that the remaining laps would have been enough for the show and for fights on the track. “
A possible Ferrari home win for Leclerc would have been rather difficult even without finishing behind the safety car. Although they had a slight top speed advantage, Verstappen also picked up fresh soft tyres for the final sprint in the pits alongside Leclerc.
Thus, the Monegasque would probably have had to hope for a mistake on the part of the Red Bull driver or make a spirited and risky manoeuvre himself, as the RB18 was also the fastest car on the track in Monza.
