Charles Leclerc will have a new race engineer for the first time in his Ferrari career from next week’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.
Ferrari have announced Xavier ‘Xavi’ Marcos Padros will move from his race engineer position to another role within Ferrari.
Marcos Padros has been Leclerc’s race engineer ever since the driver joined Ferrari for his second season in Formula 1 in 2019.
Ferrari announced in a statement that Marcos Padros will move from his position as Leclerc’s race engineer with immediate effect.
“Ferrari announces that, as of Monday 13 May, Xavi Marcos will bring his valuable experience gained as a race engineer with the Formula 1 team to the development of other important company programmes,” the team said.
Ferrari subsequently confirmed Leclerc’s performance engineer, Bryan Bozzi, will take over as his race engineer from the Imola round, meaning the driver will have a new voice in his ear over team radio for the first time as a Ferrari driver.
Leclerc thanked his outgoing engineer in a post on social media. “So many years working together, my first pole, my first win as well as my first year in Ferrari was alongside you and you always got the better out of me by pushing so hard no matter the situation we were in,” he wrote. “Thank you for everything and good luck for your new adventures in the future.”
All of Leclerc’s five grand prix victories, 23 pole positions and 33 podium finishes in his F1 career have been achieved at Ferrari alongside Marcos Padros. The pair worked together for the final time in last weekend’s Miami Grand Prix, where Leclerc finished on the podium in third place.
They have experienced some frustrations during their time together, notably during the 2022 season, where Leclerc lost his early lead in the championship through a combination of unreliability and errors including tactical mistakes. Leclerc was especially infuriated by confusion over a pit stop during that year’s Monaco Grand Prix, his home race, which cost him the lead and led to him finishing outside of the top three.
Leclerc currently sits third in the drivers’ championship on 98 points after six rounds, 34 behind championship leader Max Verstappen.
Leclerc and Marcos Padros’ final radio exchange in Miami
| Chequered flag | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mode slow, mode slow and charge button off. Reminder, pick up. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leclerc | Copy. A shame. We were unlucky with the virtual and after the Safety Car. I think we did a good job, anyway. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marcos Padros | Yeah, I agree. Good job. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leclerc | I don’t think there was the amount of water that we put in the car, because I had no water from the formation lap onwards. I think there was a problem with that. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marcos Padros | Copy that. We will check it. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leclerc | And congrats to Lando for his first win. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marcos Padros | And it will be to the grid. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leclerc | Yeah, to the grid. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marcos Padros | Good job and good weekend overall. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leclerc | Thank you. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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