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Mattia Binotto tends not to be associated with grand and public gestures of leadership in his role as Ferrari Formula 1 team principal.

Not for him the table-thumping mid-race tantrums of Toto Wolff, nor the mischief of professional wind-up merchant Christian Horner.

Instead, Binotto leads from the shadows and, still a humble engineer at heart, is the type who will gladly miss races later in the season in order to work on the following year’s car.

It was a little uncharacteristic, then, that when Charles Leclerc climbed out of his Ferrari at the end of Sunday’s British Grand Prix, Binotto was there to greet him in full view of the cameras.

Having failed to win any of the last seven races following his victory in Australia, only finishing on the podium once despite starting four of them from pole position, Leclerc has become familiar with disappointment almost to the point of numbness over recent months.

When he has not retired from the lead with engine problems, as in Barcelona and Baku, he has been let down by Ferrari’s haphazard strategy decisions.

Losing at his home circuit in Monaco after controlling the opening phase of the race in the most challenging conditions imaginable was tough enough to take, before Leclerc was again dealt a bad hand by the pit wall at Silverstone.

On course for a much-needed victory on a day when Max Verstappen, the World Championship leader, was out of contention with a damaged floor, Leclerc’s race fell apart when he was one of only two drivers not to make a pit-stop when the Safety Car was deployed on lap