The Monegasque driver was completing a demonstration run in Niki Lauda ‘s 1974 Ferrari on Sunday when he spun at La Rascasse .
After suffering an unexpected brake failure during his third lap of the Monte-Carlo street circuit, Leclerc spun and hit the barriers to the rear, damaging the rear wing.
Although he was able to get going again, Charles Leclerc eventually stopped on the main straight when he saw smoke coming from the rear of his car, and got out to inspect it.
Speaking directly after the incident, Leclerc made it clear that the crash was not due to driver error but was the result of something going wrong with the car.
“I lost my brakes. I lost my brakes! I braked, the pedal was hard and it fell,” he said.
“I was lucky to suffer it at that point, because if I had suffered it in another place, it would have been worse… The problem is that I got scared. I arrived normal at the corner.”
The broken brake disc that caused Leclerc’s accident in Monaco
As Motorsport.com’s exclusive photograph shows, Leclerc’s incident appears to have been caused by a total failure of the left front brakes.
The image, taken shortly before Leclerc spun, shows a broken brake disc on the tarmac after it came loose from the left front caliper.
Without the ability to brake at the front left corner of the car, the brakes would have seized entirely on the right hand side, leaving Leclerc powerless as the car would have instantly swerved to the right.
The tall airbox 312B3 driven by Leclerc in Monaco is owned by Cologne-based Methuselah Racing , run by Mario Linke.
Niki Lauda used a 312B3 during his first year with Ferrari in 1974. He finished second in his first race with the team in Argentina and took his first win at the Spanish GP that year. He would later add one more victory that course, at the Dutch GP.
Photo by: ACM
Photo by: ACM
Photo by: ACM
Photo by: ACM
Photo by: ACM
Photo by: ACM
Photo by: ACM
Photo by: ACM
Photo by: ACM
Photo by: ACM
Photo by: ACM
Photo by: ACM
Photo by: ACM
Photo by: ACM
Photo by: ACM
