Charles Leclerc’s woes multiplied on the opening day of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as he suffered the effects of food poisoning.
The Ferrari driver, who attended a meal with his fellow drivers on Thursday evening, revealed he suffered a sleepless night afterwards.
“It all started, unfortunately, last night where I got food poisoned and couldn’t sleep all the night,” Leclerc told the official F1 channel. “I’m so tired, I just want to sleep now. So it wasn’t so easy.”
Leclerc said he found the motivation to participate in the first practice session because he was due to drive alongside his younger brother Arthur, who took over Carlos Sainz Jnr’s car for the opening hour.
“This morning I didn’t feel like I wanted to drive,” said Leclerc, “but obviously the huge motivation of the day was doing the FP1 with my younger brother.
“This is a dream that came true today for both of us, for all of our family that travelled all the way from Monaco to see that. It was a very emotional moment. I definitely had to put the helmets on very early because I also was emotional.”
However he suffered another setback when the session began. “Unfortunately, as soon as we fired up the car, we saw that there was a problem with the energy storage.”
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The team had to replace the battery in his car, triggering an automatic 10-place grid penalty as he has exceeded the maximum number he is allowed to use this year. The development is a serious blow to Ferrari, who are seeking to overturn a 21-point deficit to McLaren to clinch the constructors’ championship in Sunday’s final race.
“Lots of things were going through my head,” said Leclerc. “First, am I going to drive this FP1 with my brother, which is a unique opportunity. And obviously also the championship. That makes our weekend a lot more difficult.
“But that doesn’t demotivate me at all. I feel a little bit better tonight already.
“I’ll have a good night’s sleep and I’ll come back tomorrow with the battery fully recharged – I’m not trying to play a game with the words! – and hopefully we’ll have a great day tomorrow and then have an amazing recovery on Sunday.”
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