Charles Leclerc arrived in Brazil with plenty on his plate, having recently welcomed his first child with his wife, Alex. Celebrating the birth of his daughter Bianca, the Ferrari driver called it a very special moment and a week to remember for all the positive reasons. Unfortunately, the on-track reality at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix proved considerably less celebratory.
After missing Free Practice 1 to allow rookie driver Dino Beganovic to take the wheel, Leclerc returned for FP2 and could only manage a seventh-place finish. That put him seven tenths adrift of Kimi Antonelli's top time, exposing a Scuderia machine that appears to lack the outright speed shown by Mercedes and McLaren at this circuit. Following strong pace in Mexico last weekend—where Lewis Hamilton secured pole position and finished second, with Leclerc fourth—the team is suddenly scrambling.
"FP2 was very tricky actually, if anything one of the worst feelings I've had this year in the car," Leclerc said. The raw pace simply was not there, leaving the Monegasque driver to admit that the squad has plenty of work ahead to unlock performance. Leclerc noted that despite sitting out the opening session, the lost track time did not account for the deficit, pointing instead to fundamental handling issues.
Fixing those gremlins will require drastic measures. Leclerc confirmed that he has ideas for substantial overnight changes to the car setup in hopes of finding a step forward. Whether those alterations can close the gap to their rivals remains to be seen.
Away from the timing sheets, the paddock was naturally buzzing about the intra-team battle between Leclerc and Hamilton in Mexico. Team Principal Fred Vasseur made his feelings known on Friday, but Leclerc confirmed that he and Hamilton had cleared the air after arriving in Brazil. Because Leclerc had to rush home to Monaco for the birth, the conversation could not happen earlier, but the matter is now fully settled as attention turns to the remainder of the weekend.
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