Leclerc vows to race through final six grands prix despite imminent birth of first child

Charles Leclerc has ruled out missing any of the final six races of the 2025 Formula 1 season, even as the birth of his first child approaches in the coming weeks. The Ferrari driver made the comments during media day in Austin ahead of the United States Grand Prix, acknowledging the timing is far from straightforward.

Leclerc and his wife Alexandra, who married in February, are expecting their first child with the due date falling across a particularly congested stretch of the calendar — two back-to-back triple-headers that will take the season through to the Abu Dhabi finale.

“No, I don’t think I’ll miss a race,” Leclerc said. “I don’t think I’ll miss a race, but obviously I’ll do absolutely everything to be at home as much as possible in between those races. So, I might arrive a little bit late. But I will be doing the races on Sunday.”

The remaining schedule begins with the United States, Mexican and Brazilian Grands Prix before a single weekend off, followed by Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi — leaving Leclerc with very little margin between events to return home.

On track, Leclerc arrived in Austin fifth in the drivers’ standings with 215 points, 125 adrift of championship leader Kimi Antonelli. Ferrari have brought upgrades to the Circuit of the Americas, though the 29-year-old was measured about their likely impact.

“I expect a very tight top four teams, that’s for sure,” Leclerc said. “That’s what we’ve seen recently — as soon as someone brings an upgrade, even if it’s not a very significant one, that’s enough to go from fourth in this group to first in this group, and Red Bull have shown that very well.”

“I hope we’ll show that this weekend with a few upgrades we brought. But it’s nothing significant on paper that shouldn’t change the hierarchy that we’ve seen in the past races. But yeah, I strongly believe that it will be very tight, just like it’s been in the last few races.”