What a way to say hello.
Charles Leclerc and his younger brother Arthur drove side-by-side in matching Ferraris at the end of the first practice session Friday for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
“Just saying hello to my brother," Arthur told the team over the radio after Charles gave him a wave on their slowdown lap at the Yas Marina Circuit.
Brothers have raced in F1 before — Michael and Ralf Schumacher both won races — but F1 said the Leclerc brothers from Monaco were the first to be teammates in an official session as part of a championship race weekend.
The 24-year-old Arthur Leclerc, who previously drove in Formula 2, was borrowing Carlos Sainz Jr.'s Ferrari because of a rule that teams must give younger and less experienced drivers practice time at least twice per season.
Charles Leclerc said his family was flying in to Abu Dhabi to watch the brothers.
“It will be a very special moment,” he said in a team statement Thursday. “Because to a certain extent it means that all the sacrifices my family made will have served a purpose.”
At one stage, the family reportedly had to pause Arthur's career when he was a teenager because of the financial demands of supporting Charles in his rise toward F1.
Charles was fastest in first practice but his session began with a major setback as Ferrari had to replace the battery pack on his car. That led to an expected 10-place grid penalty for Sunday's race and a heavy blow to the team's hopes of beating McLaren to the constructors' title.
Arthur spent the first part of the session driving with his car fitted with an “aero rake", a frame with sensors that allow teams to measure air flows. By the end, he was 18th fastest of the 20 drivers in the session, 1.858 seconds off his brother's time.
As the last round of the year, Abu Dhabi is a popular choice to try out a younger driver, since teams are typically more familiar with how to set up the car for different conditions regardless of feedback from the drivers.
Five other teams gave practice time to drivers who won't be racing Sunday, including F2 driver Isack Hadjar in champion Max Verstappen's Red Bull and former F2 champion Felipe Drugovich taking over Lance Stroll's Aston Martin.
Alpine driver Jack Doohan is set to make his race debut Sunday as well.
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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
James Ellingworth, The Associated Press
