Charles Leclerc hadn’t turned a wheel in Monaco and he was already on the wrong side of the rulebook.
Ferrari has been fined €5,000 after Leclerc arrived late to Thursday’s FIA-scheduled press conference in the principality, a minor paddock misdemeanour that nonetheless underlines how little slack exists on a weekend where everyone’s timetable is already crammed into the narrowest footprint of the year.
Leclerc wasn’t alone. Lando Norris was also investigated for the same issue after both drivers turned up a couple of minutes behind schedule for the 14:30 local-time session, where they were due to appear alongside Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto. With the start delayed, the FIA summoned both drivers to the stewards on Friday morning, with Leclerc’s hearing taking place first.
Ferrari’s explanation was straightforward: Leclerc was held up by a prior commitment. The stewards weren’t particularly interested in debating the why, pointing instead to the principle that sits behind these things. Under Article 9.15.1 of the FIA International Sporting Code, the competitor is responsible for its driver’s actions. In other words, the team wears it.
The breach was logged under Article B10.1.1.a of the FIA F1 Regulations and Articles 12.2.1.i and 12.2.1.p of the International Sporting Code, and the penalty landed as a €5,000 fine for Ferrari. It’s suspended for 12 months, provided there’s no repeat offence of a similar nature — a classic Monaco-style slap on the wrist that still leaves a paper trail.
In the grand scheme of a race weekend, this isn’t going to decide anything on Sunday. But it does speak to the modern FIA’s insistence on process: press conferences, timing, obligations — all treated as part of the championship’s operating discipline, not optional extras. Teams tend to grumble about it privately, then pay up and move on.
Leclerc will be keen to do exactly that. If there’s a place where he doesn’t need extra noise, it’s here, at the circuit that has delivered both his highest highs and a fairly exhausting catalogue of misfortune across the years. He won the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix in commanding, lights-to-flag fashion, but long before that there was the familiar “Monaco curse” narrative: crashes, punctures, mechanical failures and strategy messes that repeatedly derailed promising weekends at home.
That history is why the paddock’s habit of talking him into the favourite’s seat never quite sits comfortably — and Leclerc himself wasn’t buying it when the suggestion was put to him ahead of running.
“No,” he said, when asked about being billed as the one to beat.
Still, there was a note of guarded optimism, and it wasn’t hard to see why. Monaco, more than any other venue, tends to reward a car that’s strong on chassis balance and aerodynamic stability rather than outright straight-line performance — and Leclerc acknowledged Ferrari’s season-long weakness in that area could be masked around the streets.
“I think we are in a better place. I mean, if there’s one track I would bet on us, it’s probably Monaco,” he said. “However, I still believe that Mercedes have had a significant advantage since the beginning of the year, so I think they will be very strong.
“I think McLaren will be very strong as well. I think Red Bull will be very strong.
“But it’s true that on the other tracks so far, we’ve been struggling quite a bit on the straights, which should be less of a problem. We have a strong package chassis-wise and aero-wise, so I think it could help us.
“But Mercedes, I think, will still remain the team to beat.”
That’s the more revealing part of Leclerc’s Monaco outlook: not that Ferrari can’t shine here, but that he’s framing it against a pecking order he believes has been largely set since the start of the year. It’s also a reminder that even at a track where pole position can feel like half the win, confidence is being rationed carefully in 2026. Nobody wants to over-promise in Monaco and end up paying for it in the barriers — or, in this week’s case, in the stewards’ room.
Ferrari will take the fine, keep its head down, and get Leclerc back onto the only schedule that really matters in Monaco: building rhythm, threading the car through millimetres of commitment, and trying to turn a weekend that’s already included one summons into something worth remembering for the right reasons.
