Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko believes Charles Leclerc should have faced a ‘drastic penalty’ for missing the weighbridge during qualifying in Monaco on Saturday. The Ferrari driver claims he did not see the signal requesting that he enter the weighbridge, which led to him driving past.
Luckily for Leclerc, Ferrari noticed the error and rolled his car back into the checkpoint. Had they not done so, the Monégasque would undoubtedly have faced a penalty.
But Marko believes Leclerc should have been punished regardless, despite conceding that Red Bull will not be making an official complaint. “If you punish this consistently, as you do in the junior classes, then there will be a drastic penalty. He drove by. They didn’t change the car, but according to the regulations, it should be a penalty,” the 79-year-old told Austrian outlet ORF.
Marko added that he did not want to see Max Verstappen’s world championship rival punished because of the bad luck he had previously faced at the Monaco Grand Prix. Leclerc has never even seen the checkered flag at his home race but starts in pole position ahead of Sunday’s race.
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Leclerc has never finished at the Monaco Grand Prix, let alone won the race, but he will start on pole alongside teammate Carlos Sainz. It could be significant for the 24-year-old who relinquished top spot in the world championship to Verstappen in Barcelona last week.
He explained how he missed the signal to enter the weighbridge: “It’s a very tricky one here because we get into the pits and I actually don’t even know where the panel is, whether it’s on the right or left, but it’s very far so you don’t look in that direction.
“So actually, I didn’t see at all that I was called to the weighbridge. But luckily for me, the team saw the alarm and just told me to stop and they pushed me back.”
