“First time I’ll be seeing him play in real life”: Charles Leclerc was excited to watch tennis superstar live at Wimbledon

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc mentioned that he was really excited to see World No. 1 tennis player Carlos Alcaraz play live for the first time when he went to watch the Spaniard's Round of 16 matchup at Wimbledon on Monday (July 10).

The Monegasque driver competed at the 2023 British GP at Silverstone last weekend where he finished ninth after starting from a promising fourth on the grid. Before leaving the UK, he and Alpine F1 driver Pierre Gasly decided to enjoy some tennis at Wimbledon along with their girlfriends.

In an interview at the event, Leclerc said about Alcaraz:

“I’m really excited to be here and I’m going to see Carlos Alcaraz, who is an incredible player. I’ve only seen him on the telly and until now. But, for the first time, I’ll be seeing him play in real life and I’m looking forward to that.

While speaking about his own skills with the racquet, Charles Leclerc added:

“I love watching tennis and I love playing it too, but I’m not that talented, so maybe Pierre Gasly is a bit better than I am at tennis. I was in Silverstone yesterday for the race, so it is a good moment to relax. So I use this day to come here and watch some tennis. It is an incredible atmosphere here."

Ferrari team boss sheds light on Charles Leclerc's race strategy on Sunday

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur stated that the team lost a lot of ground after they pitted Charles Leclerc on the hard tyres from P4.

Speaking to Motorsport.com, Vasseur explained:

"We were fighting with Russell, and we were thinking that he will pit, and we will have to fight with Russell [again]. For sure now after the race, it's quite easy to say that we will have to extend and push more on the tyres."

“But I think where we lost the most is not at the stage of the race, it's that when we put the hard with Charles, I think we did something like 10 or 12 laps before the safety car and he had zero deg and he could have pushed much more. It was a misunderstanding on the deg. This is coming from Friday, and it's not coming from the race today [Sunday]."

It is difficult to assess whether Charles Leclerc would have been in the fight for the podium positions in the latter half of the race after the safety car restart.