F1 star Charles Leclerc and his pet dog Leo have captured the interest of social media giants Instagram, with the pair featuring in a post to the company’s 697million followers.

Leclerc boasts an enviable lifestyle, documented stylishly for his 21.3million followers on Instagram by photographer and filmmaker Antoine Truchet, from grand prix weekends to his engagement to partner Alexandra Saint-Mleux.

Both Leclerc and Truchet expanded their audience in a collaborative social media post with Instagram themselves, in a series of pictures and videos that have received over 2.5million likes.

Leclerc was not alone however, also accompanied by his dog Leo who plays an instrumental role in Leclerc and Mleux’s online presence and accompanies them during most race weekends.

The Ferrari star and his pooch were photographed lounging on a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean with Leo poking his head through the bars, demonstrating an obedience to camera work which further proves he is the most Instagram trained dog on the planet.

Leclerc takes fans around Monaco

In the next picture, Leo and Leclerc both looked up as they posed alongside the driver’s dark green Ferrari 275 GTB, which was also used as the wedding car for his brother Lorenzo’s wedding to Charlotte di Pietro.

Leclerc later got behind the wheel of the classic Ferrari and explained his love of Monaco, and his earliest memories of F1 as he grew up in the principality.

“Being home is very special for me because I’ve never lived anywhere else other than Monaco in my whole life,” Leclerc explained.

“My favourite memory growing up in Monaco is when I was going to school on the Thursdays of the Grand Prix, I would be at school, and because of the engine noise of the Formula 1 cars, I would hear the super loud noise of the Formula 1 cars while I was at school.

“I always remember whenever I come back here for the race. The journey is what made me the person I am today, and there’s been some moments in my career where I thought it wasn’t possible, but I feel like this moment has built me to be the person I am today. So I’m just super happy how it’s going.”

Finally the series of posts concluded with a sit down interview with both Leclerc and Leo, although the dog was a rather unwilling interviewee as his owner commanded him to: “Couche.”

“Leo is a mini dachshund long-hair,” Leclerc gushed. “Oh, look at him. He’s the man of the house. My relationship is a very close one. He’s always with us basically. He travels with us everywhere. We play with him every day and he wouldn’t say otherwise.”

Leo then propped himself up on the sofa to look out of the window, scarily like a sea captain inspecting the ocean from the prow of his ship.

Leclerc explained: “That’s his favourite thing to do, is to just enjoy the view. Whether it’s a good day or a bad day, Leo is always happy and that makes a difference for sure.”

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Alpine F1 team’s base in Viry-Chatillon was broken into on Monday morning with police now investigating the matter.

Le Parisien reported that, according to a police source, on Monday evening around 10pm two individuals broke a window in the entrance to gain entry to the building’s lobby.

The two intruders then reportedly headed straight for the upper floor where the offices of the Alpine F1 team’s executives and management are located.

No arrests have been made, but an investigation is underway and the Territorial Crime Division have been assigned to the case.

The report alleges that several doors were forced open by the intruders, who seemed to know their way around the Alpine facility. However, the two individuals were not in the premises for long and reportedly only gained entry for ‘five minutes.’

GPFans understands that no material damage was found and no objects, documents or equipment were stolen. As there were no employees in the base at the time, no one was hurt.

With an investigation now underway, forensic investigators are gathering evidence to determine what the two intruders were looking for at the company. The report concludes that with theft ruled out, all other leads are being investigated, including industrial espionage.

Industrial espionage in F1 and Spygate

There is certainly no implication that what happened at Viry-Chatillon on Monday was at all a replication of the controversy in 2007, also known as Spygate; but industrial espionage has occurred in F1 before.

Spygate involved former Ferrari employee Nigel Stepney, who passed on team documentation to McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan and detailed what is estimated to be almost 800 pages-worth of Ferrari’s secrets.

Coughlan then gave these designs to his wife Trudy Coughlan, who brought them to a photocopying shop in Woking. However, the photocopier blew the whistle on the documents, with the FIA launching their own investigation into the matter.

The FIA found that while McLaren had been in possession of the documents, there was no evidence that Ferrari’s design secrets were used for the design of their car.

Nevertheless, McLaren were disqualified from the constructors’ championship and handed a $100million fine, the largest of any in F1 history. McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso retained their points in the championship, but eventually lost out in 2007 to Kimi Raikkonen by one point.

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F1 fans have had their say about Ferrari chairman John Elkann’s controversial comments following the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Elkann, who is chairman of the wider Ferrari brand as well as a major shareholder in Scuderia Ferrari, said that Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc need to ‘talk less’ and focus more on their driving, with the team languishing in fourth in the constructors’ championship.

The Brazilian GP weekend was a dismal one for Ferrari, with the team only managing to score six points from the two races, when there was a whopping 58 on offer.

Ferrari do still have a chance of finishing second in the constructors’ championship, with 36 points separating them and Mercedes with three race weekends to go, and Elkann tried to point to the Ferrari World Endurance Championship (WEC) team with his statement, after they enjoyed title success for the first time since 1972 last weekend.

But many social media fans have been left less than impressed with Elkann, with one user saying: “Absolutely insane what’s going on at Ferrari… The chairman decides that now is the time to start complaining about the DRIVERS?? Now the drivers are defending themselves on social media???? This team cannot be real.”

That initial post led to a raft of comments, with one user saying: “I’m with Lewis and Charles. Ferrari has won nothing since 2007. They’ve had Fernando, Seb, and now Lewis, all champions. Leclerc is crazy good. It’s not the drivers. I hope Lewis and Charles keep the pressure on.”

Another commented: “They’ve had just about every driver rotate out for the last 15 years, maybe it’s Ferrari leadership,” while another said: “I feel bad for Charles, he’s given them so much patience and the slightest of criticisms gets that reaction. I’m not surprised if he moves elsewhere now. Also of the 3 champs on the grid Lewis is the calmest one in these situations, Max and Fernando would absolutely trash them.”

However, one user suggested that Elkann’s tone may be the right way to go if Ferrari are to win championships in the future: “It is about time Elkann steps in and talks and behaves like Enzo Ferrari himself. This is long overdue. Only Toto or Horner have the ruthless dictator traits to succeed at a place like Ferrari and why the 2 dominated the last 20 years.”

What did John Elkann say about Lewis Hamilton?

Elkann’s full comments to media surrounding Hamilton and Leclerc were as follows: “Brazil was a huge disappointment. If we look at the Formula 1 championship, we can say that our mechanics are winning the championship with their performance and everything they’ve done on the pit stops. If we look at our engineers, there’s no doubt that the car has improved.

“If we look at the rest, it’s not up to par. And we certainly have drivers who it’s important that they focus on driving and talk less, because we still have important races ahead of us and it’s not impossible to get second place.

“In Bahrain, we won the WEC title. When Ferrari is united, you get results.”

Ferrari’s torrid 2025 season

21 race weekends into the season, and neither Leclerc nor Hamilton have been able to seriously challenge for a grand prix victory.

Hamilton did win one race, a sprint race, but he has not even got onto the podium in a grand prix as of yet with his new team.

They’re sat fifth and sixth in the drivers’ championship, and have not been able to get anywhere near to winning Ferrari their first world championship of any kind since 2008, despite the team finishing just 11 points behind champions McLaren in 2024.

Despite all of this, team principal Fred Vasseur has recently been handed a new contract, and Ferrari have real hope that they’re going to be able to make a jump on their competitors in 2026, when new regulations sweep into the sport.

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