Ferrari to investigate pair after Brazil crash

FERRARI boss Mattia Binotto described Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix collision between Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc as a small crash with big consequences, and now he must deal with them.

The key concern will be to ensure that the Italian team are not destabilised going into 2020, when they could be fighting for titles as well as wins. Vettel and Leclerc have been summoned to Ferrari’s Maranello headquarters before next week’s season-ending race in Abu Dhabi to go through what went on and how to prevent any recurrence.

Binotto said it would not be a question of handing out fines and blame but of the drivers recognising their mistakes and learning from them.

“There is always something you can do better but ... the mistakes were the mistakes of the drivers,” Binotto said.

Damon Hill, the 1996 world champion for Williams who is now a pundit for Sky Sports television, said some firm action was needed.

“I think you have to sit them both down and say, ‘Listen guys, you can’t just behave like kids with the team like this. You have a responsibility, both of you, to the team’,” said the Briton.

Sunday’s collision, a glancing impact that put both drivers out of the race when a podium finish was a possibility, happened in an instant but had been a long time coming.

Former Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn, now the sport’s managing director, warned last month that Leclerc and Vettel, a four-times world champion, were a “potentially explosive” pairing that needed to be handled with care.