Charles Leclerc was left giggling while his wife Alexandra was mortified as their beloved dog Leo picked an interesting time to relieve himself while being walked in the Hungarian Grand Prix paddock. Photographers at the Formula 1 event caught the moment Leo Leclerc decided to relive himself up against the outside of the Red Bull garage.
Photos show the dog crouching to wee up against the wall on the outside of the garage, directly below Max Verstappen‘s racing number three. Ferrari racer Leclerc saw the funny side, laughing as he took out his own phone to capture the moment, while his wife Alexandra, who was holding Leo’s lead, seem shocked and put her hand to her mouth.
Naturally, it wasn’t long befoe photos of the moment went viral on social media. “Pee one for Leo,” joked one fan while many were quick to declare it the moment of the weekend, including one X user who wrote: “Leo really stole the spotlight in the paddock today.”
Even the official Red Bull account joined in with the fun. Replying to one post featuring a photo of the deed, the Red Bull account replied: “No Leo, that is so not right” – a reference to Toto Wolff‘s infamous radio message from the climax of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. They later posted their own photo of the site of the incident, with a piece of paper on the wall carrying the message: “Leo was here.”
It came after the stewards came together in Budapest and agreed that Leclerc should not have escaped without a penalty at the previous weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix. He was briefly investigated for causing contact with Oscar Piastri early in the Spa-Francorchamps race, but they decided to take no further action against the Monegasque.
Leclerc, who finished the race second, looked sheepish afterwards as he watched a replay of the incident in the cool down room while waiting for the podium ceremony, and later admitted that he had got away with it. He said: “At the end of the day, my view in the car is that I try to push the things to the limit.
“I think with Oscar it was a bit on the other side, so that’s probably not the way I want to race all the time. It’s also risky for me at the end of the day. You’re always trying to leave the smallest place available. That was maybe a bit too sketchy.”
A meeting was held in Budapest ahead of this weekend’s action, the first of two scheduled for this year in which drivers get together with stewards to discuss the application of the rules and suggest potential tweaks to the standards guidelines. During that meeting, it is understood the stewards accepted that Leclerc should have been punished for his role in that particular collision.