Charles Leclerc forgiven for secret skydive? 'No' say Ferrari

Ferrari

Leclerc forgiven for secret skydive? 'No' say Ferrari

Mattia Binotto is still annoyed at his driver

Martin Macdonald

Tuesday 18 February 2020 11:21

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto says he has still not forgiven Charles Leclerc for doing a skydive over the winter break without asking permission from the Scuderia first.

At the start of December, the Monegasque driver posted a photo on Instagram of him flying through the air attached to a professional skydiver with a parachute.

It enraged Ferrari at the time, and Leclerc attempted to cool down the situation with a cheeky chappie response.

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"I didn't (ask for permission) for skydiving, because I just told myself that in case it will go wrong I will not be here to be told off!” he said at the AutoSport International Show in January.

"So, yeah, I just went for it, and then they were a little bit upset. In the end, I won't do it a second time.

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"It was amazing. But it was just to do it once."

It was been a couple of months since the incident and Binotto still isn’t over it, but he thinks his young star knows he was in the wrong and won’t do something similar again without permission.

"Charles is a boy born in our academy and it is the first time that an FDA (Ferrari Driver Academy) boy has come to Ferrari,” he told Rai 1.

"The hope is that there are others that follow him. He won a race like Monza in his second season in F1, which is a lot to achieve.

"But they also make us suffer a little bit at times. Charles jumped off within a parachute and said nothing to anyone. Forgiven? No. He said he will never do it again and I hope he understood it."

Leclerc is embarking on his second season with Ferrari after his debut in 2019 which saw him win two races in Belgium and Monza.