What a great way to say hello.
Charles Leclerc and his younger brother Arthur drove together in matching Ferraris at the end of the first practice session on Friday for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
“Just saying hello to my brother,” Arthur said over the team radio after Charles waved at him during their cooldown lap at the Yas Marina Circuit.
While brothers have raced in F1 before, like Michael and Ralf Schumacher, F1 stated that the Leclerc brothers from Monaco were the first to be teammates in an official session as part of a championship race weekend.
Arthur Leclerc, 24, who previously raced in Formula 2, was driving Carlos Sainz Jr.’s Ferrari because of a rule that requires teams to give practice time to younger, less experienced drivers at least twice per season.
Charles Leclerc shared that his family was flying in to Abu Dhabi to watch them. “It will be a very special moment,” he said in a team statement on Thursday. “Because to a certain extent, it means that all the sacrifices my family made will have served a purpose.”
At one point, the family reportedly had to pause Arthur’s racing career when he was a teenager because of the financial demands of supporting Charles as he rose through the ranks toward F1.
Charles was the fastest in the first practice, but his session started with a big issue. Ferrari had to replace the battery pack on his car, which led to an expected 10-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race, damaging the team’s chances of beating McLaren for the constructors’ title.
Arthur spent the early part of the session driving with a car fitted with an “aero rake,” a frame with sensors that measure air flow. By the end of the session, he was 18th fastest of the 20 drivers, 1.858 seconds behind his brother.
As the final race of the season, Abu Dhabi is a popular choice to test younger drivers since teams are usually more familiar with car setups for various conditions, regardless of driver feedback.
Five other teams also gave practice time to drivers who won’t be racing on Sunday, including F2 driver Isack Hadjar in Max Verstappen’s Red Bull and former F2 champion Felipe Drugovich, who drove Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin.
Alpine driver Jack Doohan is also set to make his race debut on Sunday.
