Arthur Leclerc’s cheeky response to Charles Leclerc error
Arthur Leclerc found his brother Charles' FP1 spin rather amusing
Sharing the track with brother Charles for the second time on a grand prix weekend, Arthur Leclerc had a cheeky dig when he noticed his grand prix-winning brother spin late in FP1.
The two Leclerc brothers laid down the laps in FP1 at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix when Arthur, now known as ‘Leclerc Junior’ replaced Lewis Hamilton for the session.
‘Leclerc Junior’ had something to say about his brother’s mishap
The 25-year-old completed the last of Ferrari’s four mandatory young driver outings for the F1 2025 season.
Running on track behind his teammate and brother, ‘Leclerc Junior’ saw Leclerc spin at Turn 5 as he turned his attention to race-pace on the soft tyres.
“I think Charles is doing burnouts for the fans,” quipped Arthur.
“Yeah,” came the response from Lewis Hamilton’s engineer Adami, “he spun at Turn 5.”
As for how ‘Junior Leclerc’ received his new nickname, he can thank Max Verstappen’s engineer Gianpiero Lambiase for that one.
“First car ahead if Leclerc Junior,” GP said.
Verstappen was tickled, “I find it quite funny that you call him ‘Junior’.”
F1 2025: The season’s winners and losers
👉 The results of the F1 2025 championship
👉 The updated Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship standings
But while ‘Leclerc Junior’ and even the fans in the stands may have appreciated the thrill of the moment, Leclerc wasn’t happy with his pace in the session.
Although he finished third fastest on the soft tyres, a mere 0.016s down on the pace set by Lando Norris, his race pace wasn’t on a par with McLaren nor Red Bull.
“We are so slow, huh,” he complained to Bryan Bozzi.
“The car just feels like it has zero grip, its unbelievable I really don’t get it.”
‘Leclerc Junior’ was 16th, 0.875s down on Norris.
Read next: Abu Dhabi GP: Norris draws first blood ahead of Verstappen in FP1 in three-way title fight</strong>
