Carlos Sainz Borrows Charles Leclerc’s $3 Million Toy for His Father

The principality has seen a fair share of supercars and Formula One cars sprinting up and down the streets. The Mecca of F1 will witness the great circus blaze the serpentine streets of Circuit de Monaco. While the uncrowned prince of Monaco, Charles Leclerc will aim to fulfill his home GP win in his sixth outing, he is also famous for sprinting those streets in his mean-looking Ferrari 488 Pista Spider. But this time, the leading machine made news because of his teammate.

This Ferrari 488 Pista Spider, is not just any supercar, but a specially tailored version with 710 horsepower and a price of $351,300 too. One of the most photographed machines has Monacan stripes and Leclerc’s racing number 16 etched on it. In fact, the newest addition to his family, Leo (Leclerc’s Dog) has also been spotted enjoying a fun ride in the car. And in the latest turn of events, Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz seems to have borrowed the car from his World Rally Champion father Carlos Sainz Senior.

The Instagram handle, @horsepower_hunters released images of Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz’s father meeting Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari! Sainz Senior, who is already a known face in the world of fast cars, was seen sitting inside Leclerc’s car, absorbing the beauty and at the same time understanding the machine.

While Leclerc’s car has already begun making headlines ahead of the Monaco GP, Leclerc is not far behind as he is geared up to change his career trajectory.

Unaffected by horrors of the past, Charles Leclerc hopeful for Monaco GP

This bad luck, often termed the Monaco Curse, has prevented Leclerc from achieving glory in Monaco, not just in F1, but even during his F2 days. In 2017, he had to retire his car in both the Sprint and Feature F2 races. When the Monegasque arrived in F1, the story remained the same.

In his first Monaco GP in 2018, Leclerc’s race ended through no fault of his own as Brendon Hartley hit the back of his car. The Monaco GP returned in 2021 where Leclerc got pole position but couldn’t even start the race. The year 2022 was his bet due to the front-row lockout, but Ferrari made a strategic error again. It dropped him down to P4. And in 2023, Ferrari was just not fast enough to compete for a win as Leclerc finished P6. But not losing hope, the Ferrari driver is optimistic for a good weekend.

Leclerc said, “I’m really looking forward to it. We’ve always been competitive here, so I hope it will be just the same this weekend. However, the [end result] of the weekend hasn’t ever been the one I wanted. We have worked a lot, we have done our preparation in the best possible way, and I hope that this weekend will be a good one.”

Do you think Leclerc can turn it around for the sixth time of asking?