New chassis for Leclerc after Spa crash

Michelle Foster
Charles Leclerc practice crash. Belgium Auugust 2021

Charles Leclerc walks away from his damaged Ferrari having crashed during practice at Spa. Belgium August 2021

Charles Leclerc will have a new chassis from third practice onwards after the Monégasque driver crashed on Friday afternoon at Spa.

Leclerc lost control of his SF21 coming out of Les Combes during FP2 for the Belgian Grand Prix, and hit the barrier at the entry to the Malmedy corner.

While it was a heavy whack, it appeared as if he had escaped with only left-side suspension damage.

Ferrari, though, have revealed that the damage was worse than initially thought, forcing the Scuderia to build Leclerc a new chassis overnight.

Ferrari said in a statement on Saturday morning: “We announce that following the incident in the second part of FP2, the chassis of Charles’ SF21 sustained damage that cannot be repaired in a short space of time.

“Therefore, yesterday evening, a spare chassis was built up and Leclerc will use this as from FP3. ”

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Leclerc revealed on Friday afternoon that he wasn’t happy with the balance of his car prior to his crash.

“In Free Practice 1 I felt comfortable. In Free Practice 2, however, no,” he is quoted by Motorsport.com.

“So we have to understand, because we haven’t changed much in the car. So we have to understand what happened and we hope to do enough work to improve for tomorrow.

“I’m confident, I think we’ll be able to do it, and understand what went wrong in Free Practice 2 and then do better tomorrow.

“The conditions today were difficult and I think they will be the same for the rest of the weekend.

“We just have to try to adapt ourselves to the situation the best we can, to try to have a good set-up both in the dry and in the wet.

“Once we have managed to do it, we will be ready to have a good weekend.”