After Triggering Massive Helmet Controversy, F1 Champ Shares Villeneuve Family’s Raging Reaction to Charles Leclerc Tribute

Star Ferrari F1 driver Charles Leclerc made headlines this week for supposedly offending the Villeneuve family. Even though the Monegasque was keen on paying tribute to Gilles Villeneuve by using the legendary driver’s helmet design, the Canadian family was not happy with how the 25-year-old decided to do so.

Gilles’ son, Jacques, had originally prohibited Leclerc from paying tribute to his father. The 1997 world champion stated that Leclerc should have alerted his family before deciding to showcase such a gesture.

However, soon after Jacques made this remark, his sister and mother agreed to let Leclerc pay tribute to Gilles. Because of this drama, several F1 fans slammed Jacques for supposedly disliking Leclerc.

After receiving several hate messages online, Jacques has written a statement for the fans. He believes that people wrongly criticized him and that his original statement was blown out of proportion.

Jacques believes his original remarks were “blown out of proportion“

After Jacques Villeneuve received several hate messages online, he wrote a lengthy statement to clarify his stance on the helmet controversy. He explained that the only reason he prevented Charles Leclerc from paying tribute to his father was the lack of information he had at the time.

Hence, he believed it was important for him to put out a statement to provide some context. As quoted by The Race, the 52-year-old’s statement read, “As I was arriving at the track, my sister called me in a state of anger. She had seen Charles using our dad’s helmet without any prior knowledge or communication about it“.

Since there was no prior communication, Jacques explained that his entire family was surprised. Therefore, he believed it was important for him to contact Leclerc immediately and convey the message.

After Jacques expressed his concern with the Monegasque’s decision to pay tribute to his father, he also suggested the Ferrari driver once to have a direct conversation with his sister and mother. Jacques stated that Leclerc was kind enough to apologize and that “everything worked out” well.

The 52-year-old then ended his statement by clarifying that he never had any problems with Leclerc’s decision to pay tribute to his father. After sharing his point of view, he ended his statement by adding, “Unfortunately, the incident was blown out of proportion, turning it into an unnecessary controversy“.

Charles Leclerc has previously been compared to Gilles Villeneuve

Charles Leclerc is not only one of the most respectful drivers on the current F1 grid, but arguably also one of the best. The Monegasque has so much promise that some of the Ferrari crew have also compared him to legendary Canadian driver Gilles Villeneuve.

While speaking in an interview last year, former Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto was asked if he saw any similarities between Leclerc and Gilles. In reply, the 53-year-old explained how Leclerc has the talent and the passion to delight the fans, similar to Gilles’s.

Binotto added (as quoted by planetf1.com), “It is something that I call essereFerrari, being Ferrari is trying to enhance the might of the Cavallino. There are only a few drivers who are capable of doing that and I think Charles is one of these, as was Gilles“.