WATCH: Charles Leclerc’s Fortunes Open Up as He Drives 55 Year Old Ferrari on Track
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Formula One drivers are on a two-week break before the Singapore Grand Prix. The drivers are taking this time to cool off with some fun activities. For Charles Leclerc, “fun activity” means driving a Ferrari F1 car from yesteryear on a track.
However, this is not the first time he has done so.
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It seems Ferrari driver, Charles Leclerc never misses out on an opportunity to drive vintage Ferrari Formula One cars. He has already driven the 375 F1 from 1951, the 312 T from 1975, and the 312 T4 from 1979. This time, the Monegasque got his hands on the 312 F1 that competed between 1966 to 1969.
Charles Leclerc loves his ‘Spaghetti’
Apparently, Charles loves pasta, especially spaghetti. But that is not the spaghetti we are talking about today. Today we’re talking about Ferrari’s vintage F1 car, 312 F1, nicknamed ‘Spaghetti’.
The car derived its nickname from the tangled look of exhaust pipes that it sported. Ferrari deployed the car in Formula One from 1966 to 1969. While ‘spaghetti’ could only win 3 races while in service, it served a bigger purpose for future F1 cars. The reason is that the 312 F1 was the first ever F1 car to sport a rear wing.
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Charles wanted the car to be rebuilt to its original glory. To make sure the Monegasque gets to experience how the original car felt like to drive, the Ferrari engineers put in the Tipo 242C engine.
Talking about the experience of driving ‘spaghetti’ around the Fiorano track, he said, “I am very happy to have had this opportunity”. He continued, “Going from my current F1-75 to this 312 F1 is like switching to a whole different sport, although the excitement you get from driving any Ferrari is always the same. But I really enjoyed everything about this Spaghetti”.
‘Spaghetti’, in its yesteryears, was driven by Ferrari legends like Ludovico Scarfiotti, Lorenzo Bandini, Andrea De Adamich, Chris Amon, Jacky Ickx, Derek Bell, and John Surtees.
Charles’ season so far, and the road ahead
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Leclerc has had a mixed season so far. While he has had 8 pole positions, he has won only 3 races. The reason behind this bad conversion rate is arguably Ferrari’s bad race and tire strategy. Apart from this, he has had 3 DNFs, indicating a bigger problem with the reliability of the car.
Charles is currently sitting in second place, with 116 points behind Red Bull driver and defending champion, Max Verstappen. Max has created a huge gulf of points between him and Leclerc, and the title race seems to be over already. The championship could be decided in the next race itself, even though we still have 6 more races to go.
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Watch This Story: Ferrari favorite Charles Leclerc spotted with French soccer bombshell Paul Pogba.
But that would require Max to win the race, and a few other favorable results to follow. Verstappen is currently on a 5 race win streak. Charles will do whatever he can to stop this juggernaut and prolong the championship race as far as possible.
Edited by:
Ranvijay Singh