Charles Leclerc’s driver parade vehicle suffered a fuel leak ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Sunday, spilling oil in Max Verstappen’s side of the grid, leaving him at risk of reduced grip at the race start.
The Ferrari driver was one of three drivers to suffer issues on the parade laps with Lewis Hamilton and Oscar Piastri’s cars also spewing oil onto the track.
Hamilton’s car wouldn’t even get going, forcing him to hitch a ride on the back of Red Bull driver and Drivers’ Championship rival Sergio Perez’s vehicle for the driver parade.
Track staff and marshalls immediately began the clean-up efforts as they looked to reduce the amount of fuel pooling on the starting grid.
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Of three cars that suffered oil spills, two of these incidents occurred on the dirty side of the track, giving all of those drivers starting on the left-hand side of the grid a disadvantage for the race start.
This will not have gone down well with second-place starter and reigning world champion Verstappen, who has been on a mission to make his distaste for the Las Vegas GP known from the off this weekend.
He launched a passionate defence of his views in the press conference after qualifying, stating: “I feel like the show element is important but I lack emotion and for me when I was a little kid, it was about the emotion of the sport that I fell in love with, and not the show of the sport around it.
“Because that’s… I think as a real racer that shouldn’t really matter. I mean a car, first of all… A racing car, Formula One car anyway on a street circuit I think doesn’t really come alive. It’s not that exciting.
“I think it’s more about just the proper race tracks. You know, when you go to Spa, Monza, these kind of places they have a lot of emotion and passion and for me, seeing the fans there is incredible and for us as well, when I jump in the car there I’m fired up and I love driving around these kind of places.
“Of course, I understand that fans, they need maybe something to do as well around a track, but I think it’s more important that you actually make them understand what we do as a sport because most of them just come to have a party, drink, see a DJ play or a performance act.”
