It was an iconic moment in F1 as the Leclerc brothers — Charles Leclerc and Arthur Leclerc — drove as teammates in FP1 at the Abu Dhabi GP on Friday. F1’s broadcast team had the task of naming the two brothers on the timing pages, as even the commentary team discussed the novelty of the situation. Amid this, even Frederic Vasseur has chimed in with a light-hearted comment about the Leclerc brothers.
In a conversation with +Sport Direct, Vasseur joked about how he feels a bit emotional about seeing the two brothers on track, but perhaps less than their mother. Then, he revealed a small challenge about handling them,
“It was very complicated for me on the radio because they have exactly the same voice.”
Nevertheless, Vasseur appreciated Arthur and his efforts during FP1. He also stated that the young Monegasque has been doing a good job in the simulator for Ferrari as their development driver.
Look out for the lil’ waves #F1 #AbuDhabiGP @ScuderiaFerrari pic.twitter.com/ZV2oY4muN7
— Formula 1 (@F1) December 6, 2024
In FP1 at the Yas Marina circuit, though, Arthur did not light up the time charts. He was mainly assisting the Italian team’s development program for the weekend as they put some aero rakes on his car to do some testing and gather some crucial data for the weekend and for their winter development.
He ended up P18 in the final classification. Meanwhile, his brother Charles topped the times late into the session. Arthur was naturally over 1.8 seconds off the pace relative to his brother’s time due to the testing he did. However, even for Charles, the Abu Dhabi weekend has turned a bit challenging despite his promising pace on Friday afternoon.
Leclerc has a 10-place grid drop in Abu Dhabi
After FP1 concluded, news came out that Ferrari will have to exceed the battery unit allocation for Leclerc‘s car, which will naturally incur a 10-place grid penalty for Sunday’s Grand Prix. The #16 driver had a clean season in terms of reliability and had all his power unit components within the stipulated limits for each of them.
However, his spotless record had to be ruined at the season finale. This grid penalty could actually have severe repercussions for Ferrari as Leclerc can start from P11 at the highest.
So, the Italian outfit are on the back foot with regards to their constructors’ championship ambitions. With McLaren looking solid across Friday practice, Leclerc will have to produce a mammoth recovery from outside the top 10 to get a podium at the very least.
Ferrari need to produce the best possible result in Abu Dhabi to have any chance of winning the constructors’ championship ahead of McLaren. Meanwhile, the Woking-based outfit just need to prevent Ferrari from outscoring them by 21 points.
