Ferrari had a new Leclerc at the wheel this week—just not the one you were expecting.
Lorenzo Leclerc, the eldest of the three brothers, climbed into a Ferrari F1 car and turned laps, with Charles sharing the moment on Instagram. Details were kept deliberately vague—no circuit, no chassis—just a rare glimpse of the usually off-camera Leclerc taking his own turn in red. For a family whose story has unfurled so publicly, it felt like a quiet, personal win.
The Leclerc-Ferrari thread has been woven over years. Charles’ path to Maranello is the stuff of modern F1 folklore: godson to Jules Bianchi, introduced to Nicolas Todt, and propelled through loss and belief into Ferrari’s front line. There’s the searing memory of his father, Hervé, dying before his son reached Formula 1—Charles telling him he already had a Ferrari contract. He didn’t. He made it happen anyway. The tears, the steel, the payoff. You know the beats.
But the family story isn’t just the superstar and the aspiring junior. It’s also Lorenzo, nine years older than Charles, the one who studied business in Monaco, who loved the sport but understood early that his route wasn’t behind the visor.
“I did a few competitions,” he said. “But I quickly realised that I would not have a career as a driver, because there is a fairly significant budget problem. This sport has always been very expensive and it is quite difficult to manage to make a living from it.”
He stayed close regardless—best friend to Bianchi, a steadying voice for his brothers, a mentor as much as a sibling. Charles, now Ferrari’s standard-bearer, has often credited Lorenzo for being the one who carried the family when the spotlight burned hottest. This week, the big brother finally got his own moment in the cockpit.
It wasn’t a test for headlines or lap charts. It was a snapshot of why this team and this family resonate beyond timing screens. Ferrari and the Leclercs have been bound by grief, ambition, and those improbable, cinematic turns that keep F1 human. Lorenzo’s run simply added another layer: not the racing Leclerc you watch on Sundays, but the one who helped make that possible, taking a few laps for himself at last.
