F1 star Charles Leclerc named in 'bizarre brainwaves breach scandal involving Chinese military'

Charles Leclerc, Fred Vasseur, Ferrari, Belgium, 2025 — Photo: © IMAGO

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Charles Leclerc named in 'bizarre brainwaves breach scandal involving Chinese military'

An investigation alleges brainwave data has been stolen from several athletes

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Tuesday 30 September 2025 22:57

An investigation has alleged that F1 star Charles Leclerc, is amongst several athletes who have had their brainwave data stolen for military research via a focus-training headband.

Journalist Pablo Torre discussed his findings alongside Hunterbrook Media, where they claimed that a Chinese government employee obtained software data from these headsets, with Ferrari star Leclerc amongst those stolen.

Speaking on his podcast, Pablo Torre Finds Out, Torre explained: “I want to establish that this headband that I was just wearing, called the FocusCalm, is not just like a random thing.

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“It is actually incredibly popular in the world of sports because it enables athletes to track their brainwaves for performance reasons.

"You can see when you're calm, when you're stressed, 'you can get in the zone' is what the whole advertising around this is."

"These aren't just like any athletes: we're talking about Italy's famously focused Jannik Sinner, who trains with the FocusCalm.

“We're talking about the former number one women's tennis player in the world, Iga Swiatek, who is using it every day. The number one alpine skier of all time, American gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin, who uses it as also a bunch of English Premier League soccer players do."

Leclerc amongst athletes named in military research investigation

The report also alleges that FocusCalm's parent company BrainCo, has been also funded by entities linked to the Chinese Communist Party.

"In recent years, BrainCo has largely shut down its US operation," Sam Koppelman of Hunterbrook said.

"Moved to China where it's now going public at that $1.3billion valuation, and it has quietly become one of the most important companies in the world to the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party."

The report further adds that the data received could be being used by companies for military research, and maybe even in 'supersoldier' projects.

Alongside Leclerc, Sinner and Swiatek, several other athletes were named in the report, including NFL player Logan Ryan, touring car racer Nestor Girolami, members of the Italian Olympic squad and unnamed players of the Manchester City football team.

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