Coulthard praises Binotto for his composure: 'Doing a fantastic job'

David Coulthard can well imagine that the Ferrari board is frustrated after the French Grand Prix. The team made mistakes again during a crucial race, but Mattia Binotto is doing his best to remain calm in front of the public eye.

The French GP looked good for Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque started from pole position and managed to hold off Max Verstappen in the opening laps. However, after eighteen laps Leclerc landed in the wall and could not continue his race.

Carlos Sainz crossed the finish line in fifth place after starting from P19 following his grid penalties. Just as the Spaniard was about to overtake Sergio Perez for third position, Ferrari radioed him to come in. This dropped Sainz to P9, as he had a five-second time penalty for an unsafe release.

After Ferrari's three errors, the Italian team's management will be quite frustrated, according to former Formula 1 driver Coulthard. "I think he [Binotto] does a fantastic job of keeping calm on the exterior, but I’ve to imagine the pressure must be immense back in Italy, senior people within the board that are removed from the front line, they must be pulling their hair out", the Scot says on Channel 4.

Coulthard sympathises with Leclerc. "We’ve got to feel for Charles, a brilliant young man, a brilliant racing driver. But his Achilles Heel is his mistakes.” With ten races left on the calendar, the Monegasque has to make up a 63-point deficit to Verstappen.