F1 News
Leclerc reprimands press officer Ferrari: 'I say what I want!'
- Ludo van Denderen
Two weeks after Charles Leclerc celebrated the finest moment of his career (winning in Monaco), one of the low points came with it. Engine problems forced the Monegasque to pull over his Ferrari early in Canada. A day earlier, qualifying was disappointing, in which he failed to make it to Q3. To put it mildly, Leclerc was not happy about that, as was evident later that day during his meeting with the media.
In Formula 1, there is always an attempt to leave nothing to chance. That goes from the tuning of the cars to even the interviews given by the drivers. All drivers have their own press officer, who tries to prepare them as well as possible for the questions journalists are going to ask. Often, the press officers have even already written down some so-called 'speaker points'; statements that the drivers should mention.
It seemed that Charles Leclerc - just before he joined the TV journalists on Saturday - was given a few talking points by his spokesperson. The Ferrari driver read those on the phone and was clearly not happy what he was expected to report to the newsroom. "I'm going to say what I want," he said with the camera of French broadcast powerhouse Canal+ already rolling.
Leclerc says many engine changes is 'not a good sign'
On Sunday, Leclerc was not happy either. "The fact that we often have to change engines is not a good sign," he told Italian Sky. "But we have to analyse today's problem because I don't know exactly what was going on. I was a second slower on the straight, everyone was overtaking me. I already knew then that my race was over. It was a difficult race."