Charles Leclerc needs to watch his words criticising Ferrari, warns Damon Hill

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Charles Leclerc needs to watch his words after criticising his Ferrari team following a botched Monaco Grand Prix, says Damon Hill.

Leclerc’s bad luck at his home track continued for another year when rain brought an element of chaos to Sunday’s race, after he had convincingly won pole during Saturday qualifying.

Red Bull took advantage of the conditions to overcut their Ferrari rivals during the switch from wet to intermediate tyres early in the race, and Leclerc’s problems were compounded when he was brought into the pits immediately behind his teammate Carlos Sainz, forcing him to wait.

Championship leader Max Verstappen finished third and extended his advantage in the standings over Leclerc, who finished fourth, as Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez took victory ahead of Sainz.

“Let down is not the word,” said Leclerc of his Ferrari team after the race, speaking to Sky Sports. “Sometimes mistakes can happen, but there have been too many mistakes today overall. Obviously in those conditions you rely a little bit on what the team can see because you don’t see what the others are doing with intermediates, with dry tyres.

“I’ve been asked questions whether I wanted to go from extreme wets to slicks and I said: ‘Yes, but not now, it will be a bit later in the race.’ But I don’t understand what made us change our mind and go on the intermediates. We got undercut and I stopped behind Carlos.

“There have been a lot of mistakes and we cannot afford to do that. It’s hard, as it’s been the other years here, so I’m getting used to getting back home disappointed. We cannot do that – especially in the moment we are in now. We are extremely strong, our pace is strong. We need to take those, we cannot lose so many points like this.

“It’s not even from first to second, it’s from first and fourth, because after the first mistakes we’ve done another one. I love my team and I’m sure that will come back stronger. It hurts a lot.”

But the 1996 world champion Hill believes Leclerc will never be bigger than the team and that he needs to tread carefully.

“I think they are big enough and Ferrari understand,” Hill said. “But you can only criticise your team so many times before there becomes a PR problem for the team.

“Ferrari are not the people who will give way here. If you’ve got a driver versus Ferrari, Ferrari will always win. So, technically or diplomatically, you have to watch it a bit.”

F1 returns to action in two weeks in Baku for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.