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Midway through the Canadian GP weekend, Charles Leclerc has returned to his usual helmet design after using the Giles Villeneuve tribute helmet without the approval of the former Ferrari drivers' family.
Ahead of the Canadian GP, Leclerc and Ferrari announced a helmet design paying tribute to local hero Giles Villeneuve, after whom the circuit is named. The Quebec-born racing driver drove for the Italian team in the late 1970s and early 80s, amassing six victories with the team.
Gilles Villeneuve lost his life in a tragic accident in the 1982 Belgian GP. An admirer of the legendary Ferrari driver, Leclerc honored Villeneuve with his one-off helmet design. However, the Monegasque defaulted back to normal design in the FP3 session on Saturday, after receiving a complaint from the family.
During the FP3 session, Sky Sports pundit Ted Kravitz revealed that Leclerc had reverted back to his normal helmet design after receiving a complaint from the Villeneuve family.
Jacques Villeneuve, son of the legendary Ferrari driver and 1997 F1 champion is said to have asked the team to take down the helmet design, for not consulting the family before using the design.
Kravitz said during the coverage:
"At the beginning of the weekend, Ferrari put out a social media post about how Gilles Villeneuve will be honored by Charles Leclerc, wearing a sort of hybrid design in Leclerc’s helmet."
"We understand that the Villeneuve family and Jacques Villeneuve were unhappy, I think, with the appearance of the Ferrari logos on there – the sponsor logos – and felt that there could have been a bit more consultation."
Ferrari stated that the tribute design was meant in good faith, and was apologetic if the Villeneuve family were upset with the incident.
Charles Leclerc not expecting "miracles" in the Canadian GP
After a dismal outing in the Spanish GP, Charles Leclerc is not expecting a sudden upturn in results this weekend in Montreal. After introducing major upgrades in Barcelona, the team seems to have made no improvement.
Outlining his expectations for the Canadian GP, Leclerc said:
"On this track we don’t have anything new so I don’t think we’ll have any miracles."
"But we need to just try and maximize our package, understand more this package, set-up the car in order to maximize it. We have learned a lot and pretty sure we will be in a better place for this weekend, but I don’t think it will be a huge step forward."
Charles Leclerc expects a small improvement for this weekend as he hopes to regroup his efforts after an underwhelming start to the season.
