Lack of sleep, plenty of excitement – Charles Leclerc has followed this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans – which brought success to Ferrari – with great interest, but fears F1 will make his dream out of reach for too long.
Ahead of the weekend in Canada, they cheered for Charles Leclerc’s first victory after the Ferrari 58 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Monaco driver arrived on the scene before Saturday’s start, was on track into the night, and only had a short rest at the home of Antonio Fuoco, driver of their No. 50 car, before returning to the garage.
He also happily celebrated the success of Antonio Giovinazzi’s Ferrari No. 51, then indicated that one day he himself would like to compete at Le Mans. “It’s an amazing race and of course I want to take part in it one day. I don’t know when, but I want to.” Leclerc said in Montreal.
“It was the first time I visited this competition. The result was no better: Ferrari won. But the whole event is crazy. The first six evenings and hours were crazy because of the weather: it rained and it didn’t rain. It was very exciting! And I think the last time I was a spectator In a contest it was a very, very long time ago.” Ferrari said he slept about 4 hours during the fight.
When Ferrari managed to win at Le Mans for the last time, it was only natural that a whole series of Formula 1 drivers would start at La Sarthe. After that, moving between classes fell out of practice, and in modern times, even a packed F1 program prevents active Formula 1 drivers from testing themselves at Le Mans.
Leclerc fears this opportunity will not be given to him as long as he is in F1.
“There are more and more races in Formula 1, and it is more and more difficult to include another race, another category in the program, because you also need tests. If the calendar allows, why not? But at the moment it seems difficult. ”
Locklear lamented.
Charles Leclerc (Photo: XPB)He wouldn’t be alone with this desire anyway. Max Verstappen recently made it clear in an interview that he definitely wants to compete at Le Mans and, even when he’s at his peak, never go beyond 40. It’s also why he feels his relatively early retirement in F1 is an opportunity: he wants to realize his plans outside of F1 as well.
Of course, driving Le Mans as well as F1 is impossible. In 2015, Nico Hülkenberg made a guest appearance there as a member of the F1 field, as a driver for Force India, and managed to win his first Tour with Porsche. Fernando Alonso, meanwhile, combined the entire WEC championship with the F1 season in 2018. Regarding the finding of Spaniard Leclerc, he also noted that, according to him, program congestion is not an obstacle.
“Not possible. I competed in the World Long Distance Championship and Formula 1 at the same time. In both leagues, why not one race?”
– said the Spaniard, adding that the Formula 1 calendar has not been longer since 2018, so this will be an obstacle to appearing at Le Mans.
Fernando Alonso (Photo: XPB)Although Le Mans didn’t skimp on the F1 Grand Prix this year, guest appearances aren’t just for the weekend, as the 24 Hours is essentially a week-long programme, and also requires extra preparation if one wants to start in earnest. an opportunity. In 2015, Hülkenberg also completed races with Porsche before him.
Leclerc doesn’t see much hope of realizing that dream in the foreseeable future. “It will be difficult, also because we have a lot of events outside the races, there are a lot of events at Ferrari. So there is not much free time, maybe only two or three days.”
“Le Mans is a tough race. When I saw the competitors at the end of the race, they were really tired. They didn’t sleep much, they drove a lot. It’s great, I would like to try it one day, but I have to think about the season as a whole, Formula 1 has priority at the moment” He said.
