Charles Leclerc escaped serious injury after a high-speed crash at Parabolica on Lap 2 of the Monza GP, but his vision was a primary concern. The Ferrari driver lost control of his SF-26 and slammed into the barriers, triggering a red flag at the iconic circuit.
Leclerc climbed out of the car unaided and was taken to the circuit medical centre, where no injuries were detected. However, he later revealed his right eye had initially caused concern.
“The neck was OK, it was just the vision a little bit at first,” Leclerc said. “The right eye was not showing me great vision, but now it’s all good, so that’s the thing I was most worried of getting off the car.”
While his vision had returned to normal, the Monegasque confirmed he would undergo further examinations before next weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix at the new Madring circuit. “I think I’ll have quite a few additional checks that we still have to do on my side, probably tonight and tomorrow, to make sure that I’ll be fully fine for Madrid,” he added. “It should be the case, but better be safe than sorry.”
The crash happened while Leclerc was defending from Oscar Piastri at Parabolica. The rear of his Ferrari appeared to break away after clipping the kerb, ending his home race after only two laps. He suggested an unusual change in the car’s power delivery may have played a role, though he was reluctant to draw conclusions before Ferrari examined the data.
“Then for the crash itself, I went on throttle – on the first lap it felt kind of weird, I had to go back off and on throttle,” he said. “On that second lap, I tried to do the same thing but, I don’t know, it just felt a little bit weird, so we’ll look into it.”
The retirement completed a nightmare opening to Ferrari’s home grand prix after Leclerc had already been involved in a tense first-lap battle with teammate Lewis Hamilton. The pair started third and fourth and went wheel-to-wheel through the opening chicane, with Hamilton forced into the gravel at Turn 2 and dropping several positions.
Hamilton immediately complained over the radio that Leclerc had pushed him off, while Leclerc later conceded the Ferrari pair had allowed their fight to become too aggressive. “With Lewis it was a way too close into Turn 1 and unfortunately in Turn 2 – I don’t know if we had contact or whatsoever,” he explained. “I was quite a lot on the inside curve and tried to make the corner, which I didn’t do it tight enough, and then I obviously only saw in the mirrors what happened which is never what you want between two cars, between two cars of the same team.”
Leclerc later went further, admitting the teammates had crossed the line in their approach to the opening corners. “Here it’s true, though, that we went too far, I think, [with] Lewis in Turn 1. Then in Turn 2 I tried to do the tightest corner possible, but that was just not enough,” he said. The incident serves as a valuable lesson for Ferrari as they look to bounce back in Madrid.
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