Charles Leclerc drops ‘proud’ reaction as he joins brother Arthur for historic F1 moment with Ferrari in Abu Dhabi
Charles Leclerc will be joined by Arthur Leclerc as his Ferrari teammate for the 2024 Abu Dhabi GP FP1 session. For the first time in F1’s history, brothers will be taking part in the same session as teammates. Needless to say, the Monegasque is ecstatic to have Arthur by his side in the SF-24.
The older Leclerc brother shared Scuderia Ferrari's Instagram post on his stories. The Maranello-based team’s official Instagram handle had posted a picture of Arthur and Charles which read, “History Makers. First brothers to take part in an F1 session as teammates”. The caption to the post read:
“Making Formula 1 history. Charles Leclerc and Arthur Leclerc will be taking part in Friday's FP1 session as team-mates. You won't want to miss this.”
As the #16 driver shared the post on his Instagram stories along with a red heart emoji, the caption read:
“Someone is proud from up there”
Leclerc's caption suggested that it was for his and Arthur's father. Hervé Leclerc passed away in 2017 when Charles was in the F2 championship fight.
Hervé dreamed of seeing his son drive for Ferrari. Before he passed away, Charles Leclerc lied to his father and told him about getting a contract in F1. It did become a reality as Leclerc signed with Sauber in 2018 and Ferrari in 2019. And now, both the Leclerc brothers will be driving for the Prancing Horse in the same session.
Arthur Leclerc was part of the Ferrari driver's academy until the end of the 2023 season. He is still a part of the Ferrari family of drivers and fulfills the role of the development driver, hence the opportunity to drive the car in Abu Dhabi.
Why did Ferrari choose Arthur Leclerc over Ollie Bearman?
According to the FIA rules, each F1 driver needs to sit out a session during the calendar to be replaced by a rookie driver. The criteria for the rookie driver is that he/she should not have more than two F1 race starts under their belt.
Ollie Bearman is Ferrari's reserve driver and was the obvious choice to fill in for Carlos Sainz. However, the Briton has now taken part in three F1 races, one for Ferrari and two for Haas, including his recent appearance at Interlagos. Hence, Bearman doesn't count as a rookie.
Therefore Ferrari opted for its development driver, Arthur, to partner Charles Leclerc. The 24-year-old has F3 and F2 experience under his belt and is the full-time driver for Ferrari's Italian GT3 endurance championship team.