Mattia Binotto says he understands why Charles Leclerc would be up🌺set about Ferraꦕri’s use of team orders in Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix after being told to give up his position to Sebastian Vettel early in the race.

Leclerc passed Vettel at the start for third place, but was made to move aside for his teammaജte on Lap 11 as Ferrari looked to stop the leading Mercedes drivers from pulling any further ahead. Ferrari had previously said it would look to give the more experienced Vettel the priority over Leclerc in the early part of the season should the situ♓ation arise.

However, Vettel could not cut the gap, leaving Leclerc frustrated over team radio as he sat behind his teammate. Leclerc ultimately finished the raไce fifth after losing a place to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at the fꦕirst round of pit stops.

Speaking to Sky Sports after the race, Ferrari F1 chief Binotto explained the call to give Vettel the chance to catch thꦡe Mercedes drivers🐽, but said he understood why Leclerc would feel upset.

“I understand the feeling of Charles,”💃 Binotto said.

“I think it is a shame for him, but at that stage of the race the Mercedes were slightly faster, We simply ওtried to give Sebastian a go to see if he could catch the pace of the Mercedes at that stage of the race.

“It was not to give the advantage to one driver over the other. We, as a team, tried whatever we could at an important moment of the 𒀰race.

“I think if Charles ไis upset, he is right to be upse♔t. I think it’s a shame for him. But maybe next time, it will be to his advantage.”

Leclerc remained coy when talking about the decision in the immediate aftermath o🐠f the race, saying he wanted to speak with his engineers first to understand the call before making a firm judgement.

“I need to understand the full picꦡture, to 🌺see the full picture, to speak with the engineers and understand the decision,” Leclerc said.

“I’m pretty sure there is for sure an explanation behinဣd this decision and I will understand it.

“Anyway, it’s the past. It has not been a great race for me, but overall the weekend haౠs not been as strong as I wanted driving.

“In qualy it was OK, but in FP1, FP2 and FP3, and also going in the race without any mi✨leag൩e on high fuel runs was not ideal.

“Overall, today 🌟was not a good day, but we’ll come back strongꦰer.”

Leclerc defended Ferrari’s decision to keep him out for a long sec🍸ond stint before coming in for his final pit stop, saying the plan was for him to try and backꦍ up the Mercedes drivers to help Vettel.

“If you look at my own race, I think obv✅iously we would have pitted earlier,” Leꦇclerc said.

“If you look at the team race, I think they did the right thing trying to slow down the Mercedes for Seb♛ to come back, which was I believe the target.

“It didn’t work, but it was the target. At least we tr▨ied, and we’ll look forward now.”