"Ferrari broke him. Blud can’t even celebrate no more": Fans react to Charles Leclerc's depressed demeanor after securing Belgian GP pole

With a grid penalty in place for Max Verstappen, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc has inherited the pole position from the Dutchman for the Belgian Grand Prix. However, his unhappy demeanor during the post-qualifying interview has sparked conversation among Formula 1 fans.

After an eventful weekend in Hungary, Red Bull Racing decided to make upgrades on Verstappen's RB20 to make it more manageable. The Milton-Keyes-based team also opted for a new engine for the triple-world champion, most likely to optimize results. However, with the new engine exceeding the allotted quota for the 2024 F1 season, Verstappen was handed a 10-place grid penalty for the Belgian GP.

The penalty has proved beneficial so far for Charles Leclerc. However, the Monegasque looked quite downbeat by the development, despite being the second-fastest driver in the rain-soaked Qualifying session at the Spa circuit. Seeing his demeanor, an F1 content creator shared his opinion via an X post.

Take a look at the X post, captioned:

"JESUS, Charles you got pole position be happy, already waving the white flag."

The aforementioned post got some interesting reactions from F1 fans.

"Ferrari broke him. Blud can’t even celebrate no more." wrote a fan and added a GIF image of a disappointed Leclerc.

"He probably knows he will fall back fast so why get hype?" commented another one.

"He knows the team he drives for 🤷‍♂️," a fan replied sarcastically.

"Knows who his team is and probably not happy with how far back he is from the RBR," added another fan, explaining the situation.

"I wouldn’t be overly excited with a gifted pole either if the gap to the real polesitter is almost 6 tenths and knowing P1 isn’t even that great of a position to start from at Spa," elaborated another X user.

"Both him and Norris sounded so crushed it was surreal to watch," commented an F1 fan.

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A brief look at Charles Leclerc's Belgian Grand Prix weekend with Ferrari so far

Charles Leclerc at the Belgian GP (Image source: Getty)

After a decent outing in Hungary (a P4 finish), Charles Leclerc was likely looking for a more competitive result at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps this weekend. However, Ferrari were unable to tune his SF-24 as efficiently as his rivals at Red Bull Racing and McLaren F1.

Leclerc failed to keep up with the front-runners in the three Free Practice sessions. He was 0.934 seconds behind Max Verstappen in FP1 and 0.577 seconds behind FP2 leader Lando Norris. With just four laps in the crash-shortened FP3 session, the Monegasque dropped a massive 4.468 seconds behind the reigning world champion.

This lack of pace was also evident in the wet-weathered Qualifying session. Although the 24-year-old Ferrari driver finished second behind the triple-world champion, he was a massive 0.595 seconds adrift of the tentative pole-sitter.

With Spa being one of the most challenging circuits on the calendar, it will be up to Leclerc and Ferrari to maximize the results in the race on Sunday.