Charles Leclerc will head into the second day of track action for the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix with a new Ferrari chassis.
The Monegasque crashed during Free Practice 2 on Friday, plucking the front-left wheel off his SF21.
Inspection of the car following the incident saw the team decide it couldn’t complete repairs to a level it was satisfied with and would instead swap out the tub.
“Scuderia Ferrari announces that following the incident in the second part of FP2, the chassis of Charles Leclerc’s SF21 sustained damage that cannot be repaired in a short space of time,” the team announced.
“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.”
Leclerc lost control of his car exiting the Les Combes chicane late in the second 60-minute session on Friday, slithering across the track under acceleration.
He then ran out of road when gathering the car back up, tagging the tyre barrier with the front wheel before coming to a rest in the gravel at Malmedy as a consequence.
“We have quite a bit of work to do,” Leclerc admitted after the opening day’s running.
“FP1 was alright but FP2 was a bit more difficult. We’ve got tonight to work on the set-up of the car and hopefully we can have a better day tomorrow.
“I was reasonably happy with the car balance but the performance is not where we expected it to be.
“The track conditions were tricky but it was the same for everyone. It looks like it will remain like this for the rest of the weekend, so we have to get used to it.
“It wasn’t great to finish the first day by touching the wall, but tomorrow and Sunday will be the days that count and I will make sure to learn from my mistake.”
Free Practice 3 is scheduled to get underway at 20:00 AEST this evening, with rainy conditions having set in above the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
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