It is double trouble for Ferrari as Charles Leclerc has been handed a 10-place grid penalty for using a new energy store on his SF-24 car for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Adding to Ferrari’s woes, Leclerc suffered from food poisoning on Thursday evening, which continued to affect him on Friday. His condition raises concerns about his form for the remainder of the race weekend. This setback jeopardizes Ferrari’s hopes of clinching the Constructors’ Championship, as the 21-point gap to leaders McLaren now seems even harder to bridge.

The Ferrari driver fell ill on Thursday night and woke up on Friday feeling unwell, admitting he initially lacked the desire to race. However, his motivation to get behind the wheel of his SF-24 came from sharing the FP1 session with his brother, Arthur Leclerc, Ferrari’s development driver. The pair made history as the first brothers to drive for the same team in a Formula 1 session. Adding to the occasion, Leclerc delivered a strong performance by finishing FP1 at the top of the time sheets.

Unfortunately, his troubles continued when the SF-24 experienced technical issues at the start of FP1, delaying his session by nearly 30 minutes. To resolve the problem, Ferrari installed a third energy store in his car. As this exceeded the season’s allocation of two energy stores, the 27-year-old faced a 10-place grid penalty. This means that even if Leclerc manages to claim pole position in qualifying, he will start the race from P11 on the grid.

The Monegasque driver shared details about his health scare, expressing relief and improvement after the emotional experience of driving alongside his brother. He remained optimistic for a stronger performance on Saturday. He said:

“It makes our weekend more difficult, it all started unfortunately last night where I got food poisoning and couldn’t sleep much of the night, I’m so tired and just want to sleep.

“So it wasn’t easy this morning, I felt like I didn’t want to drive, but obviously the huge motivation of the day was doing FP1 with my younger brother [Arthur] – this was a dream come true for both of us and the family that travelled all the way from Monaco. 

“It was very emotional, I had to put the helmet on early because I was emotional, and that is where everything started to go wrong.

“I feel a little bit better tonight, I’ll have a good night’s sleep and come back tomorrow with a battery full re-charged, and I’m not trying to play a game with the words!

“Hopefully, we’ll have a great [Saturday] and an amazing recovery on Sunday.”