Leclerc feared he’d fail to join brother in Abu Dhabi FP1 with food poisoning

Charles Leclerc has revealed a mixture of technical issues and illness left him concerned he would lose the “unique opportunity” to drive alongside his brother during practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

As part of F1’s requirement to enter a rookie driver in two Free Practice 1 sessions, Ferrari opted to hand Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari SF-24 to Arthur Leclerc, three years younger than Charles, at the Yas Marina circuit.

A Ferrari development driver, Arthur has been racing in the European Le Mans Series and the Italian GT championship this year, while focusing on supporting the Scuderia as a development driver in its Maranello simulator. 

Friday marked his maiden grand prix weekend run, as the Leclerc brothers became the first siblings to take part in a Formula 1 grand prix session for the same team.

It was a mixture of emotions as Charles was forced to miss the first part of the session with a battery issue – the replacement landing him a 10-place grid penalty and harming Ferrari’s hopes of overhauling McLaren to win the constructors’ championship.

But he would eventually drive alongside his brother and went on to end the session at the top of the time sheets.

“It makes our weekend more difficult,” he said of the penalty.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

“It all started unfortunately last night where I got food poisoning and I couldn’t sleep all night, I’m so tired, I just want to sleep now. It wasn’t so easy and this morning I didn’t feel like I wanted to drive but obviously the huge motivation of the day was doing FP1 with my brother.

“This was a dream that came true today for both of us, for all of our family that travelled all the way from Monaco to see that. It was a very emotional moment and I definitely had to put the helmet on very early because I also was emotional and that is when things started to go wrong unfortunately.

“As soon as we fired up the car we saw there was a problem with the energy storage. There were lots of things going through my head, first was: ‘Am I going to drive this FP1 with my brother, which is a unique opportunity?’, and obviously also the championship, that makes our weekend a lot more difficult, but that doesn’t demotivate me at all.

“I feel a little bit better tonight already, and I’ll have a good night’s sleep, and I’ll come back tomorrow with the battery fully recharged – not trying to play a [pun]! But yeah, hopefully we’ll have a great day tomorrow, and then have an amazing recovery on Sunday.”

Arthur hailed an “amazing” experience as his first taste of the current Ferrari F1 car came alongside his brother, while their mother watched on from the garage.

Arthur Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

“He took a bit more time to get out of the pit, but it was just amazing, full of emotion,” he said. “I was seeing in the last lap he was behind and pushing. I was seeing him in the mirror trying to put the pressure – but obviously it didn’t work!

“Then we had a small wave and in the end, I could wave to him, which was a good moment in the family.”

The Monegasque rookie’s run plan turned into soft-tyre running only, which brought its own challenges for the youngster.

“It’s incredible. It was so cool because obviously it’s giving a lot of grip. But as well, the second lap, you straight away have a massive deg which, as a new driver, is a bit tricky, as you don’t have such a constant balance and such a constant grip,” he explained.

“So the first lap I was a bit behind. And then when we put the new tyres the huge grip was back again. So yeah, that’s just the grip that you have in this first lap is incredible, and my neck is a bit sore!”