Brembo fires back after Leclerc blames brake failure for Monaco retirement

Brake supplier Brembo has publicly pushed back against Charles Leclerc’s claim that a catastrophic brake failure caused his retirement from the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday, calling the Ferrari driver’s post-race comments “premature” and expressing “great astonishment” at the accusations.

Leclerc had been running third at Circuit de Monaco — set for a home podium behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton — when he crashed at Antony Noghes corner ahead of the lap-65 safety car restart. Race winner Kimi Antonelli was unchallenged at the front throughout.

Speaking on the radio immediately after the incident, Leclerc was unequivocal. “Honestly, I’m not even going to take the blame,” he said. “These brakes!”

He expanded on the issue when addressing the media after his retirement. “Out of the four brakes, I had three brakes not working,” Leclerc 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 Monegasque driver explained that the problems appeared to be directly triggered by the safety car period. “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,” he said. “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.”

Leclerc noted that his braking difficulties had carried over from struggles in Montreal, though he stressed the scale of the failure in Monaco was entirely unprecedented.

Brembo responded swiftly with a formal statement defending the reliability of its components. “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.

Brembo also pointed to the depth of its relationship with Ferrari as context. “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 added that it had not yet been able to determine the root cause of Leclerc’s issues, and cautioned against drawing conclusions before a full data review. “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,” Brembo said.

The public dispute between driver and supplier adds an uncomfortable dimension to Ferrari’s Monaco weekend, which was already overshadowed by their inability to match Antonelli’s pace at the front.