Charles Leclerc suffers very unfortunate mishap during Ferrari F1 testing

charles leclerc in the Ferrari garage looking annoyed — Photo: © IMAGO

Pre-Season Testing

Charles Leclerc suffers very unfortunate mishap during Ferrari testing

An undignified moment may have been caught on camera

Chris Deeley Editor

Experienced sports writer covering F1 and other motorsports since 2023

Saturday 24 January 2026 21:57

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There's low-hanging fruit, and then there's...whatever this is.

Before introducing this clip, we'd like to be very, very clear that we don't know that Charles Leclerc stepped in some kind of poo on Friday. We don't know that. We haven't asked. On this occasion, we decided it might be best not to get in touch with our contacts at Ferrari to ask, because we want them to continue to respect us.

But like, it sure looks like Charles Leclerc stepped in some kind of poo after getting out of his new SF-26 on Friday.

Article continues under video

Give us one, single other reason that he would be aggressively grinding the bottom of his race boots on the gravel in the universal 'I have GOT to get this wiped off' motion before checking the bottom of his boot, and we'll consider it. For now though...nope.

Did Charles Leclerc really step in poo?

The real question is: what sort of animal uses the grass run-offs at Maranello as its own personal bathroom? We can be fairly sure it's not a cat, because they tend to bury theirs. It's probably not a wombat, because they aren't native to Italy. Everything else is still on the table.

We've seen all sorts of animals invade F1 tracks over the years – giant lizards, deer, and a few humble dogs. Could be any one of them.

We also have to ask the question, rather than just let it hover. It...it couldn't be human, could it? Surely Italians are too couth for that sort of thing.

We'll let you all speculate in the comments. We'll do it among ourselves on Slack. The point is, we're pretty sure there was a poo and we're pretty sure Charles Leclerc stepped in it. Everything else is a footnote.