Ferrari swaps Leclerc’s chassis after Belgian GP practice crash

Leclerc brought out a red flag when he lost control of his Ferrari coming out of the Les Combes chicane in the closing stages of second practice in Belgium on Saturday afternoon.

The Monegasque suffered a snap and lost the rear of his car at the exit of Turn 6 and hit the barriers on the left-hand side of the circuit, an impact which ripped off his left front.

Ahead of final practice on Saturday morning, Ferrari revealed it had assembled the spare chassis overnight for Leclerc to use from FP3 onwards due to the amount of damage he had picked up.

The change of chassis will have to go through FIA scrutineering but will not incur a penalty.

“The chassis of Charles Leclerc’s SF21 sustained damage that cannot be repaired in a short space of time,” a Ferrari spokesperson confirmed.

“Therefore, yesterday evening, a spare chassis was built up and Leclerc will use this as from the third free practice session of the Belgian Grand Prix.”

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto had indicated the damage was only minor when he spoke to Sky Sports F1 immediately after the session.

"I think it was a small mistake,” he said. “I haven’t seen it yet but yes. It looks like a small mistake," said Binotto. "I think, let’s see [the damage].

"Obviously, a few damages on the car but luckily it’s only Friday and we’ve got the entire night to repair.”

Leclerc also downplayed the accident, saying: “Obviously, I would prefer to not end the day in the wall today, but it’s part of free practice. I’ll try not to redo the mistakes later.”