Leclerc On 'Big Painkillers' During The 2023 United States Grand Prix

Monday, 23 October 2023 at 19:00

Ferrari F1 driver Charles Leclerc revealed he was in pain and had to take painkillers before the 2023 United States Grand Prix Race.

The Scuderia Ferrari driver has had a mixed results weekend at Circuit of the Americas. Leclerc proved he is one of the fastest drivers in terms of one-lap pace when he qualified on pole for Sunday's race and second for the sprint race.

The Monegasque then converted the second starting position in the sprint to a third-place finish behind Max Verstappen on Red Bull and Lewis Hamilton on Mercedes.

However, the Sunday race did not go as well for Leclerc as he went for the worst race strategy, doing only one stop during the race and falling to sixth place from his initial pole position.

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The 26-year-old revealed after the race finish he was struggling with pain caused by a tooth infection earlier in the weekend. Leclerc told the media:

"I had a tooth infection inside. I think it's the wisdom tooth. I was in quite a lot in pain on Thursday, Friday, and then it calmed down. Today it was OK."

Tooth pain can be really bad as we all know. Nevertheless, Leclerc said it was okay on Sunday, and it would not have been something that would affect his performance as he was on "big painkillers".

"I've been on really big painkillers since Thursday. For some reason now it's actually quite fine, as I took painkillers before the race. I've had times that were quite intense and others that was less, but nothing that affected me inside the car."

Leclerc's painful weekend got worse a few hours after the race concluded as he and Lewis Hamilton both got disqualified due to their cars not meeting technical requirements. The Ferrari driver has consequently been put out of points.