"For F*** sake...I had a heart attack": Watch Charles Leclerc and his race engineer's hilarious back and forth after the 2023 F1 US GP qualifying

Charles Leclerc and his Ferrari race engineer Xavi recently had a hilarious conversation on the team radio during the 2023 F1 US GP qualifying session. Since this was regarding lap time deletion due to track limits, Leclerc demanded a different way of conveying the message.

At the end of the Q3 session, where the top 10 drivers were clocking in their fastest laps, many were being caught running wide and having their lap times deleted. After Charles Leclerc finished his fast lap, Xavi came on the radio and stated that Verstappen's lap time had been deleted. However, he did not mention the name in the first few words, which made the Ferrari driver panic that his lap was deleted.

The 26-year-old urged Xavi to name the driver first and then mention that their lap time had been deleted. This was even more intense for Charles Leclerc since he was second in the session and did not want to go any lower. Below is the conversation between the two. Xavi starts (h/t @there_is_no_if on X):

"So lap time deleted for Verstappen."

"For f**** sake, tell me the name before!", adds Verstappen.

"Verstappen, lap time deleted", says Xavi.

"Yeah, well, I had a heart attack in the meantime!!", Versatppen replies.

The video can be seen in the tweet below:

Charles Leclerc was only five-thousandths of a second behind Max Verstappen and had a brilliant qualifying session. To top it all off, Verstappen's lap time was deleted right after Q3 ended, giving the Monegasque the pole position. The Red Bull driver has been dropped to sixth place for the main race.

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Charles Leclerc is not too concerned about fighting for fifth or sixth position in the drivers' championship

Charles Leclerc has had a worse season when compared to 2022. The Monegasque is currently in sixth place in the drivers' championship with 145 points and is competing against Lando Norris (136) and his own teammate, Carlos Sainz (153), in the table.

However, Leclerc has said that he does not care too much about these positions since he is focusing on the top spots, which excites him much more. In his pre-race interview ahead of the Qatar GP, he said:

"I don‘t mind tbh. I mean we are fighting, I don‘t even know whether it‘s fifth or sixth in the Drivers' championship, and this is not really what matters to me."

"Of course my target is to beat everyone until the end of the season, even though Red Bull is a bit in the league of their own, especially Max, but to do the best job possible in the last part of the season, and if we do that, that means we are infront of them in the championship, which is good, but again, it‘s not something that excites me particularly."

It is safe to say that Ferrari's wonderkid is focused on getting himself and his team back to the top and competing with Red Bull.